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KEARNEY, Neb. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team lost 61-49 to Nebraska-Kearney Thursday evening inside the Health & Sports Center.

The RiverHawks dropped to 8-7 overall this season and 4-4 in MIAA play, while UNK improved to 9-7 on the year and 4-4 in the MIAA.

NSU was led by freshman forward Bria Pierce. Pierce was 5-for-6 from the charity stripe and finished with 11 points.

NSU shot 31.5 percent (17-for-54) from the field, 16.7 percent (3-for-18) from behind the arc and 70.6 percent (12-for-17) at the line. UNK shot 42.6 percent (26-for-61) from the field, 35 percent (7-for-20) from 3-point range and 40 percent (2-for-5) at the charity stripe.

Kelsey Fitzgerald led the Lopers with 19 points. Amarah Williams added 14 and McKenzie Brown scored 10. 

The contest was back and forth in the first 20 minutes with Nebraska-Kearney holding a 28-23 lead at halftime.  The RiverHawks came out in the second half and cut the UNK lead to two at 30-28 with 18:49 to play in the game. The Lopers then went on a 22-0 run to push the score to 52-28 favoring UNK with 10 minutes remaining. NSU responded with a 12-0 run of their own, but were unable to get closer than 12 points, which was the final margin.  

Nebraska-Kearney outrebounded the RiverHawks 44-34. The Lopers also held the edge in points in the paint (36-24) and assists (18-8). NSU had fewer turnovers (11-13) and held the edge in second chance points (11-2) as well as bench points (14-10).

Northeastern State will finish its four-game road trip when they take on Fort Hays State at 2 p.m. Jan. 17 in Hays, Kansas.
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH RANDY GIPSON
Initial statement…
"We obviously had that tough stretch in the second half when UNK went on a run. We had cut the lead to two early in the second half and then we had a lot of empty possessions and didn't shoot the three well. We just couldn't turn the tide. They made things happen and we couldn't get stops and the game got away from us."
 
On having some of the young players get strong minutes…
"It's encouraging to having players like Caley Shaffstall and Danielle Robertson play like that. That was Caley's longest stretch of play this year and I thought she did a lot of positive things. We're encouraged by having the young players do things like that. We have a lot of young players who are having to learn on the go and this was a tough lesson tonight. We just didn't execute very well on offense and I thought our youthfulness had something to do with that."
 
On having mental toughness and coming back from the big run…
"We showed some mental toughness. The kids continued to play hard. We started attacking the basket better and made some shots which gave us some encouragement to play hard. For the most part we played solid on defense tonight. Our problems were on the offensive end."
 
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