NSU media services
CANYON, Texas – It was a game of survival, and Northeastern State survived in the opening round of NCAA Division II South Central Regional at the First United Bank Center at West Texas A&M; University on Friday.
The RiverHawks rallied in the final seven minutes to overtake Central Oklahoma 54-52 to advance to play No. 2 seed and No. 7 nationally ranked Washburn University in the semifinals at 5 p.m. today. The Lady Blues defeated Central Missouri University 72-61 in another quarterfinal game.
“The game was an ugly game, low scoring, turnovers and a lot of missed shots,” said Northeastern State head coach Randy Gipson about his team’s win which moves it to 27-6 on the year. “It just demonstrates that these two teams have played twice this year. Both teams had good defensive plans and were able to disrupt the offensive rhythm of the other team.
“I was really pleased with our team. As bad as we were struggling with our offense we continued to compete and keep ourselves in the game with defense. Finally we got a good run offensively in the last five minutes of the game,” said Gipson.
Shooting only 25 percent (8-of-31) in the opening 20 minutes of play and 0-of-12 from behind the arc, NSU forced the Bronchos (22-8) into 14 first-half turnovers, to trail only by two points at the half 21-19.
The RiverHawks shot only 30 percent for the game (19-of-62) which included just 3-of-28 on 3-point attempts. Defensively NSU forced UCO into 27 turnovers in which the RiverHawks scored 19 points. The RiverHawks held the Bronchos to 40 percent from the field (20-of-49), including 4-of-21 from behind the arc.
“We haven’t played on this floor in two years and I haven’t played on it since I was freshman and it just takes time to adjust,” said Jessica White, who led NSU with 15 points, its only player in double figures. “We didn’t shoot as well in the first round at Bartlesville (Lone Star Conference Tournament) as we did the next two rounds.
“They (UCO) threw us a little out of our, give them credit. They played good defense and I think that got to us also. We just persevered and we able to get it done somehow. We hit the shots when it counted,” said White.
Trailing 28-24 with 14:41 remaining in the contest, White broke a 0-of-16 RiverHawk 3-point drought with 14:03 left by draining a trey from the right of the key to slice the UCO lead to a point 28-27.
UCO’s Ashley Beckley, who led the Bronchos with 16 points, converted a three-point play to give UCO a 41-38 advantage with 5:21 to go.
Northeastern State took the lead for good on a Cristy Nitz jumper and a layup with 5:01 remaining to give the RiverHawks a 42-41 advantage. Megan Fraley then nailed her second trey to put the RiverHawks up by four, 45-41 at the 4:22 mark.
UCO managed to come within just two points the rest of the way, as the RiverHawks held a six-point lead 49-43 with 2:51 left. UCO cut it to three points on a trey by Rose Anderson. But a free throw by Jasmine Webb put NSU up by five, before the Bronchos’ Cristina Yarbrough drained a trey moving to within two points of NSU 51-49 with 41 seconds left.
Northeastern then drained five of six free throws in the final 20 seconds, one by White and four by Alix Perkins to hold a five-point lead with two seconds remaining 54-49.
UCO’s Yarbrough then sank a meaningless trey five feet beyond the midcourt line at the buzzer for the final count.
