STILLWATER – Northeastern State stuck with the Cowgirls early but a pair of scoring lapses and cool second half shooting led to a 70-37 loss on Sunday afternoon inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.  Bailee Eldred paced the RiverHawks with 11 points in the season opening exhibition.

Thanks to 13 forced turnovers by the RiverHawks' defense, Sunday's meeting was the closest played between the two programs in its third preseason tilt. 

Offensively the RiverHawks were limited to 22.9-percent (11-48) and only connected on three shots in the second half.

The majority of OSU's offense was spurred inside where they outscored the RiverHawks 34-to-18.  Oklahoma State won the rebounding battle 50-to-29 and had 15 second chance points; Northeastern State was limited to two.

Joi Bertrand had seven points in the opening quarter as the RiverHawks second leading scorer.  Freshman Cielo McClain scored six points off the bench and grabbed four rebounds in her debut.  Morgan Lee paced NSU off the glass with six boards.

HEAD COACH FALA BULLOCK ON THE SEASON OPENER…
In the first half, we got a couple of stops and stayed in the game.  I think in the second half fatigue set in for us and toughness, we got out-toughed on the boards in the second half, and it made it a little difficult to stay in the game.  Overall, it is a good measuring tool for us, and it will be exciting to see what it looks like with a few more practices under our belt.
 
WELCOME BACK
Destiny Strange made her return to the floor after missing the final 19 games of the season a year ago.  The redshirt-senior started the contest and played 22 minutes.
 
COMING UP
The RiverHawks will continue its Big 12 exhibition loop on Nov. 5 with a trip to Oklahoma at 7 p.m.