TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team lost 67-48 to Arkansas-Fort Smith Saturday afternoon inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks (3-1) suffered their first loss of the season, while the Lady Lions improved to 3-1 overall.
 
Leading the way for NSU was junior forward Mary Jane Buschmann, who tallied 19 points in 27 minutes of action. Sophomore forward Destiny Strange added a career-high 12 points and six rebounds.
 
Northeastern State shot just 34.7 percent (17-for-49) overall, 28.6 percent (6-for-21) from behind the 3-point line and 72.7 percent (8-for-11) at the free-throw line. Arkansas-Fort Smith shot 39.7 percent (25-for-63) overall, 30.3 percent (10-for-33) from distance and 53.8 percent (7-for-13) at the line.
 
Olivia Hanson was the only member of the visiting team in double figures, and she netted 16 points off the bench.
 
The RiverHawks led for 17 of the game's first 20 minutes. They pushed their lead out to as much as seven points before UAFS was able to close the half on an 8-0 run to take a 24-23 advantage into intermission. The Lady Lions outscored NSU 24-9 in the third quarter and were able to cruise the 19-point victory.
 
Northeastern State turned the ball over 20 times, and UAFS tallied 14 steals. The visitors led in rebounding (41-34), points in the paint (26-14), points off turnovers (21-11), second-chance points (14-2) and bench points (43-13).
 
Next up for the RiverHawks will be a home contest against Rogers State. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 24 inside the NSU Event Center.
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH RANDY GIPSON
Opening statement...
"We just couldn't sustain the intensity that we needed to have to be able to play against a good team today. Maturity and toughness are aspects of our game that we need to work on developing. We're just too soft in every phase of the game. We didn't take care of the ball well and we didn't run offense with any sharpness. We didn't guard well and we got beat on the boards. We've just got some growing up to do. Our youth and maturity showed up today."
 
On the positives of the first half…
"Our defensive positioning was pretty good. We weren't letting them get anything easy to the basket. We covered the boards decently in the first half. We struggled offensively in that half, too. In the second half, (UAFS) found the holes in our defense and were able to break it loose on us. We don't know how to play as hard as you need to play in a game like this against a good team."
 
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