ALVA, Okla. – Northeastern State opened their season with a 61-50 loss at Northwestern Oklahoma on Friday evening at the MIAA/GAC Challenge with Tanner Mouse leading the RiverHawks with 14 points. 

Mouse was the lone NSU player in double-figures as they only made eight buckets in each half, shooting 27.1-percent on the floor. 

The RiverHawks had the a slight 14-to-13 edge in the offensive glass but the Rangers controlled the defensive side of the floor with 45 total rebounds, which was 11 more than NSU's final total.  Gordon Hill led Northeastern State with eight rebounds and added six points. 

Northeastern State led through the first five minutes of the game and held their final advantage at the 7:53 mark, leading the Rangers 14-13.  Northwestern followed up with six unanswered points to lead the rest of the away in-front of their home crowd. 

In the second half a Rangers 11-0 run mostly off of free-throws widened the contest to a 51-36 lead in the middle stages for NWOSU and was too large of a gap for the RiverHawks to overcome.  Northeastern State did get within eight points with 90 seconds remaining with Mouse providing all of the team's offense in the final five minutes.

Montre' Williams was NSU's second leading scorer with seven points, with Jamir Andrews, Lucas Antunez, and Hill behind with six. 

Despite only making a pair of three-pointers, the Rangers won the game shooting 20-for-50 from the floor, and dominated the paint 34-to-14 on the RiverHawks. 

Northwestern Oklahoma's (1-0) Andres Treyvon had a double-double with 16 points and 13 boards.

Northeastern State (0-1) will return to the floor on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. to face Southeastern Oklahoma in the final game of the crossover challenge.