TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State faded after putting together a strong opening quarter against Fort Hays State on Thursday evening and fell 71-53 inside the NSU Event Center.  Joi Bertrand led the RiverHawks (9-12, 5-9 MIAA) with both Cailyn Long and Lauren Woods scoring nine.

The Tigers (19-4, 10-4 MIAA) broke out of a 13-13 tie with NSU three minutes into the second period with an 18-5 run into the half.  Northeastern State never could recover to drop their fourth contest in a row.

Thursday's win was Fort Hays State's seventh in a row and the longest currently in the MIAA.

Shooting wise, the arc was not kind to NSU after they went 3-for-17 as a group, which matched their season low for the season.  From the field, the RiverHawks were 37.3 percent (19-51), while the Tigers were 41.5 percent (27-65) on their side of the floor. 

On the glass, Fort Hays grabbed 11 more off the glass with 41; Long led the RiverHawks with five.

HEAD COACH FALA BULLOCK ON THURSDAY'S CONTEST
Fort Hays is a really good team. They're solid, and the people that are supposed to score scored, and the people that are supposed to rebound and crash the boards did. I thought we had the right game plan, initially in the first quarter. We slowed them down early on, but as our challenge has been the rollercoaster, we won't be consistent. We need to just be tougher. They out toughed us tonight.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
1 – Northeastern State made one three pointer in each of the second through fourth quarters.
32 – Bertrand recorded her 32nd block of the season which is the most for an individual NSU player since the 2013-14 season.
 
COMING UP
Northeastern State returns to the floor on Saturday to face Nebraska-Kearney at 1:30 p.m.