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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team earned a decisive 77-39 victory over the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Tuesday evening inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks (2-4) have now won two straight after dropping the first four contests of the season, while the Lady Lions fell to 1-6 on the early campaign. This was also the first time since Dec. 31, 2011, that NSU held its opponent to fewer than 40 points.
 
Junior guard Fontana Tate tied her career high and led all scorers with 18 points. She was 7-for-9 from the field and connected on 3 of 4 from downtown. Freshman forward Che'Ron Lewis added 15 points, nine boards and four blocks, while sophomore guard Kate Bellamy chipped in 10 points.
 
Northeastern State shot a blistering 50 percent (25-for-50) from the field, 54 percent (7-for-13) from behind the three-point line and 77 percent (20-for-26) at the free-throw line. The hot shooting and dominant rebounding edge (49-29) made up for 17 turnovers. NSU also had 16 assists, nine steals and seven blocks.
 
UAFS posted an overall shooting percentage of 24 percent (14-for-59), while also hitting 15 percent (2-for-13) from downtown and 53 percent (9-for-17) at the line. Sydney Franklin came off the bench to lead the Lady Lions with seven points.
 
NSU will take a short break for the Thanksgiving holiday and will then play host to Southeastern Oklahoma State at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 30.
 
Scoring Summary
Arkansas-Fort Smith  17      22        39
Northeastern State     33      44        77
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH RANDY GIPSON
Opening Statement…
"It was a good outing overall for us from start to finish. We really established ourselves defensively, especially on the interior there in the first half. We kept them off the boards pretty well. We had a slow start missing some easy shots, but we were making some good cuts. We got settled and started hitting some shots, and it was just a solid game for us. I thought we worked hard on both ends."
 
On committing 17 turnovers…
"Cutting the turnovers down is something we need to work on, but it's understandable under the circumstance. (Arkansas-Fort Smith is) a team that changes defenses and they brought a lot of pressure. They have good athletes, and some of those (turnovers) were just mental errors that we made because we haven't seen that kind of a defense a lot. We've got young people in there that panic a little bit sometimes."
 
On being able to practice a lot over the last week…
"We were able to have four intense practices, and I think it showed tonight. Our energy was good, and our defensive fundamentals were better. We had some good rotations where we helped each other, and we were still able to get back and get people blocked out. I think that, defensively, we were better fundamentally because we were able to have good practices. Everybody was able to participate, and we had good, quality intensity. I'm a big believer in what practicing does for making a team ready to compete on gameday. Our team responded well. They have a good attitude and they give good effort in practice."
 
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