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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team used a strong second-half comeback to defeat Nebraska-Kearney 64-61 Thursday night inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks (7-8, 4-4 MIAA) snapped a short-lived two-game losing skid, while the Lopers fell to 6-8 overall and 3-5 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
 
Senior forward Carrington Fox led NSU with nine points, 11 rebounds, eight blocks and five assists in 30 minutes. Her rebound total was a career high, and her eight blocks tied the school record for most in a single game (Kathy Brock vs. John Brown on Dec. 8, 1983). Junior guard Fontana Tate finished with 12 points, and freshman forward Che'Ron Lewis added 10.
 
Northeastern State shot 37 percent (20-for-54) from the field, 36.8 percent (7-for-19) from downtown and 68 percent (17-for-25) at the free-throw line. Nebraska-Kearney posted a 33.9 percent (21-for-62) shooting average, while connecting on 33.3 percent (8-for-24) from distance and 73.3 percent (11-for-15) at the free-throw line.
 
Sydney Seberger paced the Lopers with 17 points, while Amarah Williams added 11.
 
Nebraska-Kearney jumped out to a quick 11-3 advantage and led the entire first half, leading by as much as 12 points in the opening stanza. NSU was able to get the deficit in single digits and trailed 35-27 at intermission.
 
The Lopers got hot midway through the second half and used an 11-2 run to take a 53-38 lead with 9:24 to play. NSU was able to chip the lead down to 59-50 with 3:51 remaining, and a three by Tate on the RiverHawks' next possession sparked a game-closing 11-2 run that saw the home side come from behind and earn the victory.
 
Northeastern State did not take its first lead of the game until a layup by Lewis with exactly one minute to play, but the lead would hold up as Nebraska-Kearney missed seven of its last eight shots. NSU also outscored UNK 25-8 in the final nine minutes.

NSU finished the game with 13 blocks, which was the most in a single game in the Randy Gipson era. The RiverHawks also outrebounded UNK 45-38 and led 20-12 in points in the paint.
 
The RiverHawks will remain home for a 1:30 p.m. matchup Jan. 18 with No. 23 Fort Hays State.
 
Scoring Summary
Nebraska-Kearney              35        26        61
Northeastern State              27        37        64
 
Northeastern State Coach Randy Gipson
Opening Statement…
"We're thrilled with the way our kids hung in the game. There wasn't much that went right for us for about 35 minutes or so. We made some shots and I thought we tightened the defense coming down the stretch. We got the rebounds and went and made the plays. For our kids to get in a close game like this and see that they can make the plays and win the game is big for us because we've come up on the short end of this type of game almost every time."
 
On getting a win heading into a tough stretch of games…
"Any win is big. I don't know how big, but we have to get ready to play again in a couple days. Maybe we gained a little optimism. It's an interesting thing watching this team and watching a lot of these kids grow up and try to learn how to play college basketball. Our older kids really stepped up for us. Obviously Fontana Tate hit some big shots down the stretch. Carrington (Fox) played really hard and led the defensive effort down the stretch. Also Che'Ron Lewis made some big plays for us, and we had some others chip in for us. We found enough to win. Any kind of win for us is important."
 
On what sparked the comeback…
"Probably the three by Fontana (at the 3:29 mark). We didn't shoot the ball well for a good while and Fontana hitting the two big shots maybe rubbed off on her teammates. Those shots were pretty deep, but she had them lined up and she looked determined to knock them down."
 
On Carrington's performance…
"She played hard, she played like you want your senior leader to play. I thought that inspired us. She was physically getting beat around inside, but she kept grinding and playing hard. She was blocking shots and getting rebounds. It can't help but make the rest of the team feel like we have a lot of play for with a performance like that."
 
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-