Game 24: Northeastern State (9-14, 5-11 MIAA) vs. Nebraska-Kearney (19-5, 11-5 MIAA) at 2 p.m. | February 17, 2018
Kearney, Neb. | Health and Sports Center
 

Live Stats	sidearmstats.com/unk/wbball/
Live Stats for Media	sidearmstats.com/unk/wbball/media
Live Audio	GoRiverHawksGo.com
Live Streaming Audio	portal.stretchinternet.com/nsu/
Play-by-Play	Scott Pettus
Live Streaming Video	TheMIAANetwork.com ($)
	Northeastern State Game Notes

The Series 
Northeastern State after winning the first two meetings with the Lopers has dropped the last eight in a row heading into Saturday's contest.  The RiverHawks have yet to win in Kearney in their four prior trips.  Despite the streak, NSU's last two meetings win the Lopers have been inside one-position.

The Coaches
Fala Bullock is in her first season as head coach and was named to lead her alma mater on April 1, 2017 to replace Randy Gipson who retired after 18 years.  With six years of head coaching experience, Bullock is 107-88 overall and within conference play she is 66-64.  She has spent the last four seasons (2013-17) as head coach at NCAA Division II Armstrong State University, where she recorded a career mark of 60-52.  In her first season at Armstrong State, she led the Pirates to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history, and reached the Sweet 16. 

Bullock played for Gipson for two seasons, and was a graduate assistant under Gipson from 2004 to 2006.  As student-athlete, Bullock played in 57 games and NSU went 36-19, winning the 2003 Lone Star Conference Tournament, and made the program's first NCAA Tournament berth.   As a member of Gipson's coaching staff, NSU reached the Sweet 16 in 2004, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2005 and 2006.

Carrie Highmey (47-35) is in her third season at Nebraska-Kearney and holds a 115-66 career head coaching record between UNK and three seasons at Hastings College.  Highmey was the head assistant coach at Hastings for four seasons (2004-08) before holding the same position at MIAA-member Fort Hays State from 2008-12. As an assistant at Hays, Eighmey was part of a program that had just joined the MIAA. The Tigers won 59 games in her time assisting head coach Tony Hobson, including a 20-9 mark during the 2011-12 season. Hofstetter also played and worked for Hobson at Hastings College.

Last Time Out for NSU 
Shooting woes plagued Northeastern State on Thursday evening as they fell 73-45 at Fort Hays State.  The RiverHawks shot a season low 30.4 percent from the field and their 45 points was also the lowest this year. Joi Bertrand was NSU's lone player in double-figures with ten points as the Tigers won their fifth in a row at home.  Defensively, the RiverHawks held Fort Hays State to their second poorest shooting night of the season at 36.9 percent (24-65), with seven of their 11 three-pointers coming in the opening quarter.  On the glass, NSU only trailed 43-to-42 with Lauryn Blevins pacing the RiverHawks with seven.

Last Time Out for UNK
The Lopers saw a 15 game home winning streak come to an end on Thursday evening at the hands of Central Oklahoma who used a 20-7 run to get past UNK, 59-53, for the second time in a week.  UNK got double doubles from senior McKenzie Brown (14 points and 10 rebounds) and sophomore reserve post Kennedy Sanger (10 points and 10 rebounds).

MIAA Defense 
Northeastern State is second in MIAA play in field goal defense 37.3 percent, and are third in three-point defense at 29.7 percent.  When facing MIAA programs, NSU is averaging nearly five blocks a game which is fourth best with Joi Bertrand third in league blocks at 1.7 per game.

Coming Up
The RiverHawks head back home and will host Emporia State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.