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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team halted a four-game slide with a 58-54 victory over Washburn Saturday afternoon inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks improved to 9-9 overall and 5-6 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, while the Ichabods dropped to 13-5 on the year and 5-5 in the league. The 54 points by WU was the second-fewest the team has scored this season.
 
NSU was powered by its three senior guards, as all three scored in double figures. Chelsey Beathard led the charge with 16 points (12 in the second half), Fontana Tate added 13 and Sarah Sagely chipped in 10.
 
Northeastern State finished the game 20-for-54 (37 percent) from the field, 7-for-21 (33.3 percent) from behind the 3-point line and 11-for-18 (61.1 percent) at the free-throw line. Washburn shot 39.1 percent (18-for-46) overall, 35.3 percent (6-for-17) from distance and 85.7 percent (12-for-14) at the charity stripe.
 
Casyn Buchman paced the Ichabods with a game-high 20 points, and Taylor Ignoto registered 13 points for the visitors.
 
The opening moments of the contest belonged to Washburn, as the road side powered ahead 13-2 in the game's first eight minutes. WU led by as much as 13 in the first half, using a Dana Channel layup at 8:06 to pull ahead 21-8. Sagely and Tate combined for 13 points in the final 6:48 of the first half as the RiverHawks used a 15-4 run to head into halftime down just 25-23.
 
A traditional 3-point play from freshman guard Alexis Hill five minutes into the second half gave NSU its first lead of the game at 32-31, but the Ichabods were able to come back and regain the lead midway through the frame at 37-34.
 
The RiverHawks made 3-point shots on their next four possessions and added a mid-range jumper from Tate to go ahead 48-40 with 7:35 remaining. The home team had multiple chances to put the game out of reach, but the green and white missed six free throws across the game's final minutes to keep Washburn within striking distance. The Ichabods were able to get within two points on a three from Buchman with 16 seconds remaining, but junior guard Kate Bellamy converted a pair of free throws with four seconds left to secure the victory.
 
Northeastern State led in points in the paint (20-10), points off turnovers (17-12) and bench points (14-9), while also registering fewer turnovers (9-14). Washburn led in rebounds (36-32) and steals (7-5).
 
NSU will close out its three-game homestand with a 5:30 p.m. tilt with No. 4 Pittsburg State Jan. 28 inside the NSU Event Center.

NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH RANDY GIPSON
Initial Statement...
"It's good to get back on the winning track. I think our team competed very hard. I thought we were up against it early when we got down by 13, but we kept playing hard and defending well. I thought we played good team defense, which gave us a chance to get our offense going. It was encouraging to see that we were able to get some good looks and get some shots to go in. Finally having some shots go down gave us a lot of energy."
 
On the offense...
"We tried to execute some things and be patient. At the beginning of the game we were hurrying things and trying to force some shots. We started doing a better job of letting the shots come to us and hitting the shot when it was there. We were maybe trying too hard at the beginning, but we settled down. Hitting those four 3-pointers in a row probably helped to settle us down."
 
On moving forward...
"All of these conference games are tough, but Pittsburg State is an outstanding team. You get used to playing against tough teams and you start figuring out what you have to do to be competitive in the games. I'm hoping the games we had this week help us understand what we have to do to compete going forward."