TAHLEQUAH – For the second evening in a row Northeastern State, led from coast-to-coast and beat Northwestern Oklahoma 80-73 on Saturday evening inside the NSU Event Center.
 
Tanner Mouse led the way with 16 points with every player who stepped onto the floor scoring for NSU.  Josh Ihek scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and added six rebounds.  Trent Cantrell and Caleb Smith both put up 12 points to make up the rest of the NSU quad who were in double digits. 
 
Carrying a 39-33 lead into the intermission, Northeastern State opened the second half with 12 straight points on the Rangers. 
 
The RiverHawks lead ballooned out to 21 points five minutes into the second period, as they will leave the opening weekend with a 2-0 record.  Northwestern Oklahoma, a 22-win team a season ago, falls to 0-2 to start the year.
 
TURNING POINT
Northeastern State's hot second half start cooled and the Rangers trimmed down the lead down to four (72-68) with three minutes remaining.   Following a full timeout, Ihek would grab an offensive rebound to drop a put-back to go back up by six icing the game.
 
GAME NOTES
- First 2-0 start to the season since 2013.
- Lincoln Wieseman and Ihek both paced NSU with six rebounds
- Aaron Givens blocked three shots, which was the most by a player since the 2016-17 season.
- The Rangers out-rebounded the RiverHawks 40-to-37.
- Both teams shot around 42-percent.
 
HEAD COACH MARK DOWNEY ON STARTING THE SEASON 2-0…
Win two games at home, get some people to get excited about our program, and get our guys learning how to win.  I think one of the largest things in the last 18 months since being here at NSU has been teaching these guys how to win, it's been a while.  We didn't finish it like we want to and we haven't done that well the last two nights.  We still got more points at the end of the game so we will take it and move on, and we will get better.
 
COMING UP
The RiverHawks will make a short trip to Claremore on Wednesday evening to face Rogers State (1-1) at 7:30 p.m.