Box Score (HTML)  I  Box Score (PDF)

WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team fell 56-53 to Central Missouri Saturday afternoon inside UCM's Multipurpose Building.
 
The RiverHawks dropped to 6-5 overall and 2-2 in the MIAA, while the Jennies improved to 8-3 overall and 2-1 in the league.
 
Senior guard Fontana Tate led NSU with 14 points and a game-high seven rebounds, while fellow senior guard Chelsey Beathard added 11 points for the visitors.
 
Northeastern State shot 44 percent from the field (22-for-50), 40 percent (6-for-15) from behind the 3-point line and 60 percent (3-for-5) at the free-throw line. UCM shot 43.8 percent (21-for-48) overall, 35 percent (7-for-20) from distance and 63.6 percent (7-for-11) at the charity stripe.
 
The Jennies were paced by a 15-point outing from Shelby Winkelmann. Tayler Weiks added 11 off the bench and Jasmine Thompson chipped in 10. Northeastern State held all four of Central Missouri's top four scorers below their season averages.
 
UCM built a nine-point advantage in the early going en route to a 30-22 halftime lead. The Jennies pushed their lead out to as many as 12 points with seven minutes remaining in the game, but NSU used a 10-0 run to get back within two at the 3:22 mark.
 
A rare 3-point basket from UCM's Breonna Embray and poor shooting down the stretch for the RiverHawks allowed the Jennies to secure the narrow victory. NSU had a chance to tie on its final possession, but an attempt from Tate hit the side of the rim.
 
Northeastern State outrebounded Central Missouri 31-28 and the two teams tied with 13 turnovers and 26 points in the paint.
 
NSU will now take the rest of the fall off before playing host to Northwest Missouri State at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 5 inside the NSU Event Center.

NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH RANDY GIPSON
Opening Statement…
"I'm pleased that we bounced back from a bad performance on Thursday. We competed well against a good team. Obviously, I'm disappointed that we couldn't come back and get it done to win the game. We're in the process of finding ourselves and finding a rotation. This is the first chance that Bria Pierce has had to play. We saw some real positive signs from her to be able to get into the post and help us out. I'm encouraged by the way we played overall and disappointed that we lost. We have the (holiday) break now to find out the things we need to get better at."
 
On the difficult upcoming MIAA schedule…
"Rebounding continues to be a key. We generally guard decently, but eliminating second shots is where we need our biggest improvement. We need to find a consistent rotation, but I feel encouraged that we are on track to do that. Hopefully we can keep everybody healthy. It's a tough schedule, but all of these games are about the same whether they're ranked or not. That's somebody's outside perspective. If we can compete like we did today and make one more play, then we have a chance to get a few wins here and there. We just have to keep working and play every possession."
 
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-