Box Score (HTML) I
Box Score (PDF)EDMOND, Okla. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team lost a 77-49 decision to Central Oklahoma Thursday night inside Hamilton Field House.
The RiverHawks dropped to 5-15 on the season and are now 3-10 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The Bronchos improved to 14-8 overall and 7-6 in the MIAA.
Junior forward
Dakota Caudill paced the visitors with 14 points.
NSU shot 34 percent (18-for-53) from the field, 23.5 percent (4-for-17) from behind the 3-point line and 50 percent (9-for-18) at the free-throw line. UCO shot 48.1 percent (26-for-54) overall, 42.4 percent (14-for-33) from distance and 84.6 percent (11-for-13) at the line.
Reggie Sloan led the Bronchos with 16 points off the bench. Seth Heckart finished with 15 points, while Philip Brown added 12.
The RiverHawks held a 26-22 advantage in points in the paint and also led 10-4 on fast-break points. UCO outrebounded NSU 36-33 and also led in assists (21-10), points off turnovers (21-14) and bench points (39-13).
NSU was held to just 13 points in the first half, which was the fewest points scored in a half since the team also had 13 against Arkansas Tech on Nov. 15, 2008.
Northeastern State continues its final road trip of the season when the team travels to Emporia, Kansas, for a 7:30 p.m. contest Feb. 12 against Emporia State.
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH JASON TINSLEYInitial statement..."We had a hard time making shots again tonight. I don't think we made our first field goal until (12:15 remaining in the first half). This game was a tale of two halves. In the first half we shot 13 percent from the field and 10 percent from 3-point territory, while they shot 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from three. If you're not making shots, you have to make sure the other team isn't making them. I thought in the second half we played a lot better. We had dug ourselves such a hole in the first half though, it was difficult to get out of it. I thought we played much better in the second half. And I didn't think we played bad in the first half, we just didn't make shots. I thought our effort was good and we did some good things."
On improved rebounding..."Rebounding the basketball has been a point of emphasis all year long. It is something we always talk about. We've been negative 10 in rebounding almost the whole year, but the last four games, including tonight, we've gotten a lot better at closing that gap. We still haven't been outrebounding people, but we've gotten closer. We did a good job on the offensive glass tonight, but we've got to convert those into points more consistently."
On being aggressive in the paint..."We did a good job in the paint tonight. I told them the whole game that we could easily get the ball into the lane anytime we wanted to and attack the basket. Eventually we figured out that we could do that and we started getting layups or getting fouled. We were 9-of-18 from the free-throw line, so we left points on the court there. But we started getting aggressive going to the basket."
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-
