MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northeastern State held off a pair of runs by Northwest Missouri on Thursday evening to open MIAA play with a 68-57 win.
The RiverHawks had three in double-figures with
Cailyn Long leading the team with 13 points,
Miranda Griffin had 12, with six rebounds, and three takeaways.Â
Joi Bertrand would come up big for NSU in the fourth quarter and she had ten points, seven rebounds, three blocks, and a pair of steals.
Thursday's win snapped a streak of 14 straight MIAA losses for the RiverHawks who have now won seven in a row over the Bearcats.
Northeastern State led for nearly 38 minutes and held a slight 37-to-33 edge on Northwest in rebounding.Â
Cenia Hayes matched Bertrand for the team high off the glass with seven.
The RiverHawks looked to have full control of the contest in the first half and held onto a 33-18 advantage over the Bearcats with just over four minutes remaining. However, the Bearcats ended the second quarter on a 12-2 run on Northeastern State to trim their lead down to 35-30 at the intermission.
Out of the locker room NSU used nine unanswered points in the third quarter to expand their lead back into double-digits. The Bearcats would mount one more run on Northeastern State while they were in a dry spell in the final quarter to use a 9-2 run to get within four points (57-53) with 4:53 left on the clock.Â
Bailee Eldred hit a layup with 3:17 left to halt a four-minute scoreless streak by the RiverHawks and Bertrand added back-to-back buckets to bump their lead back to ten to bounce the Bearcats on their home floor.
From the field, the RiverHawks shot 28-for-54 (51.9-percent), with the Bearcats going 21-for-62 (33.9-percent) on their end of the court  Northwest (1-5, 0-1 MIAA) was led by Tanya Meyer who had a double-double with a game high 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Thursday's win sends the RiverHawks to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in MIAA play.
Northeastern State will remain on the road to face Missouri Western State on Saturday at 2 p.m., GoRiverHawksGo.com will carry the action live online.
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