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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team lost their first MIAA game of the season 75-69 to Lincoln Thursday night inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks (1-6, 0-1 MIAA) have now dropped five in a row and lost their conference opener for the first time since joining the MIAA. The Blue Tigers (4-6, 1-0 MIAA) have already surpassed their win total from each of the last two seasons.
 
Junior guard Demone Harrison paced NSU with 17 points, while senior guard Michael Harmon added 15. Fellow senior guard Keon Littleton tied his career-high with 11 rebounds.
 
Northeastern State shot 43.1 percent (25-for-58) from the field, 30.4 percent (7-for-23) from behind the 3-point line and 75 percent (12-for-15) at the free-throw line. Lincoln shot 51.9 percent (27-for-52) from the field, 47.4 percent (9-for-19) from deep and 60 percent (12-for-20) at the line.
 
NSU allowed the Blue Tigers to have two 20-point scorers. Joshua Buie was 9 of 11 from the field and led all scorers with 27 points. Victor Scott poured in 21 points, and Mike Smith added 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the visitors.
 
The RiverHawks outrebounded an opponent for the first time this season (34-32) and also held a halftime lead for the first time this year (37-33). NSU led by as much as 13 points in the first half before succumbing to the Blue Tigers. Lincoln led in points in the paint (32-22), points off turnovers (21-13) and steals (8-4). The RiverHawks' bench outscored LU 24-3.
 
Northeastern State is now set to entertain Lindenwood at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 6 in Tahlequah.

NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH JASON TINSLEY
Initial statement...
"What has been our problem the entire year is our inability to make shots and our inability to stop the other guy from making shots. We've been getting out-rebounded by 11 boards per game. It was one of our keys to the game to be plus-one in the rebound column. We were plus-two and I'm proud of that. We let them shoot 52 percent from the field and 47 percent from the three. That's what we let teams do. This is not an aberration. Until we improve that it's hard to win basketball games. We missed a ton of easy shots around the basket. When your margin for error is paper thin, we can't miss point-blank shots. Right now we aren't doing a good job of defending. I'm frustrated for them that we can't get this figured out. I'm not taking anything away from anybody that has beat us. Most of these losses, we beat ourselves. A lot of this stuff is self-inflicted and good teams don't beat themselves."
 
On the message with a halftime lead...
"We were making an emphasis to locate Victor Scott. He's a shooter, he made seven 3-pointers. We talked about pushing the ball up the floor and probing the zone more. We needed to get stops. That's our biggest Achilles heel right now. We just don't get stops. When we get into a lull in shooting the basketball it affects everything else we do. That's the sign of a team that's not mentally tough enough. A mentally tough team keeps plugging away and fighting. We need to figure out a way to win."
 
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