DURANT, Okla. – Northeastern State couldn't find late its game magic for the second night in a row and fell 72-59 to Southeastern Oklahoma on Saturday night.
Coming off the heels of a fourth quarter rally on the prior night against Northwestern Oklahoma, the RiverHawks never led on Saturday, and shot 3-for-14 in the final ten minutes against the Savage Storm.
Destiny Strange led the RiverHawks with 14 points as its only player in double-figures.
A combination of ten points off of turnovers and ten points at the free-throw line put the RiverHawks back 23-14 on Southeastern Oklahoma after the opening period.
Despite never leading, the RiverHawks were within a pair of possessions back for the majority of the contest. In the third quarter, five unanswered points off of a layup from
Lauryn Blevins, and a trey by
Cenia Hayes put NSU back 48-43 of the Savage Storm with 2:38 remaining. However, NSU couldn't hit a bucket for the next two minutes while Southeastern Oklahoma scored six unanswered to give them an 11-point advantage.
Southeastern Oklahoma had a 41-to-37 lead in rebounding with
Cailyn Long pacing the RiverHawks with five. Both
Alexis Hill and
Miranda Griffin had three steals in the loss.
Northeastern State finished the night with 15 turnovers that the Savage Storm scored 23 of their points on, the RiverHawks would have 14 points on Southeastern Oklahoma turnovers.
From the field, the Savage Storm (1-1) only made three more buckets than the RiverHawks going 24-for-59 on the floor.
Tree Brooks was NSU's (1-1) second leading scorer with eight points, Blevins and Griffin both had seven.
The Savage Storm's Katie Webb paced all scorers with 21 points, and Emem David had a double-double with 17 points and 11 boards.
Northeastern State will return home on Wednesday to face Rogers State at the Event Center at 5:30 p.m.
