The headline: Northeastern State closes out their home schedule with the back-half of their home-and-home series with the Tigers and Lopers.  Saturday's games will be aired on Lakes Country FM 102.1 due to NSU baseball broadcasting their doubleheader against Winona State.  Thursday's games will be aired live on Billy Country FM 96.3 like the rest of the season.  Additionally, all the contests are carried live on the NSU audio broadcast portal which can be found on GoRiverHawksGo.com.   Rylie Torrey is continuing to pace the RiverHawks in scoring with 16.7 points a game which is fifth highest in the MIAA.  The NSU sophomore has scored 10+ points in 22-of-23 games this season.

At the line: Northeastern State leads the MIAA in free-throw percentage and entering this week's contests are 77.6-percent at the line with Rylie Torrey pacing the league at 89.2-percent. At the national level, the RiverHawks are 13th best as a team, with Torrey ninth overall. NSU's best season at the line was in 1990-91 season were they went 75.7-percent during the NAIA era.

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Northeastern State (6-17, 2-13 MIAA) vs. Fort Hays State (18-6, 9-6 MIAA)
Feb. 16, 2017 | 5:30 p.m. | NSU Event Center
Live Stats | Live Video | Live Audio | Game Notes

The series with Fort Hays State: Northeastern State trails the overall series to the Tigers 8-3 and the RiverHawks have dropped their last six meetings with FHSU. 

NSU's last time out against Fort Hays State: A cold shooting first half led the RiverHawks to a 77-44 road loss on Thursday night at Fort Hays State.

Rylie Torrey had her seventh 20-point contest with a game high 21 to continue her streak of 22 straight in double-figures.  Destiny Strange was NSU's second leading scorer with 12 points which was her most since Dec. 13, 2016 at home against Bacone.  Strange knocked down a career high three treys in the loss, in 53 previous games she had 11 total for the RiverHawks.

Thursday's 33-point loss was the widest for the RiverHawks this season and they were out-rebounded by 30 to the Tigers with 26; Miranda Griffin led NSU with six off the bench.

Northeastern State shot 28-percent (14-50) with half of their shots coming from long range; Fort Hays State was 37.7-percent (26-69) from the field and saw their numbers trail off in the second half where they went 11-for-36.

Scouting Fort Hays State:  The Tigers have seen mixed success on the road holding onto a 3-5 road record while going 12-1 at home.   Fort Hays limits their turnovers with 12.3 per game which is sixth lowest in the nation and they block the ball with 5.3 a game where they are 13th nationally; Emma Stroyan is 27th nationally with 2.09 blocks a game. On offense, the Tigers divide their points evenly with six players averaging over seven points an outing. Jill Faxton is the long FHSU player in double-figures with 11.8 per game.  Rebounding the ball is a highlight for FHSU, with the Tigers grabbing 44.13 boards per game, on the offensive glass they are picking up 16 a game, which is second highest in the MIAA.

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Northeastern State vs. Neb.-Kearney (9-14, 5-10 MIAA)
Feb. 18, 2017 | 1:30 p.m. | NSU Event Center
Live Stats | Live Video | Live Audio | Game Notes

The series with Neb.-Kearney: This will be the ninth meeting between the Lopers and RiverHawks with NSU trailing the series 6-2. Northeastern State won the first two meetings in the series with the next six going toward UNK. 
 
NSU's last time out against Neb.-Kearney:  Northeastern State could not find an offensive rhythm in the final 30 minutes and fell 54-36 on Saturday afternoon to Lopers. 

After shooting 9-for-12 in the first ten minutes, the RiverHawks were 5-for-38 the rest of the way, and missed all ten attempts in the final quarter.

Destiny Strange paced NSU with 13 points for her second straight game in double-figures.  Rylie Torrey came up with eight, and it was the first time in 23 games this season she didn't hit double-digit points. Cailyn Long added seven off the NSU bench.

With the RiverHawks shooting 28-percent from the field, the Lopers didn't do much better going 32.2-percent (19-59).  Saturday's difference was in rebounding with UNK grabbing 12 more boards with 45 overall.  On the offensive side, the Lopers doubled NSU's total with 14 and picked up 15 second chance points, eight more than the RiverHawks.   Mary Jane Buschmann led the RiverHawks with ten boards, Alexis Hill and Kylie Looney both added six.

Scouting Neb.-Kearney: The Lopers will be visiting Central Oklahoma on Thursday but the road has been a struggle this season for UNK with a 1-8 record.  The Lopers are another team that limits their turnovers and with 12.7 a game they are 11th lowest in the nation. On defense, teams are shooting 41.3-percent from the field which is tenth highest in the MIAA, and in rebounds UNK is averaging 36 a game. Michaela Barry is leading UNK in scoring with 15.0 points a game and she takes the majority of their shots with 325 field-goal attempts this season.