TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The RiverHawks were cold in the second half as they were held to 8-36 shooting in the final 20 minutes of play. With the 65-50 loss to Pitt State (9-5 in MIAA), Northeastern State fell to 4-9 on the season.
Northeastern State came out of the locker room with memories of its last meeting with Pitt State, an 84-82 setback, jumping out to an 11-5 lead following a junior
Maegan Lee 3-pointer. However, after the under-5 minute timeout, the Gorillas and Kaylee DaMitz got out of their shooting funk as she scored 13 of the 19 PSU points in the opening stanza. Her jumper at 3:00 gave Pitt State the lead, one they clenched onto the entirety of the game.
After an 8-0 run got NSU back into the game after being down by nine points, things were looking up for NSU. However, it trailed 31-29 at halftime. Five RiverHawks scored during the 16-12 in favor of NSU second quarter. They were led by sophomore
Zaria Collins and junior
Morgan Lee with five points apiece in the quarter. Mo. Lee's 3-pointer knotted the contest at 29 with 1:38 until the break.
The second half was a different story as the RiverHawks shot at a 22.2 clip and only made eight baskets across the 20 minutes. It was starkly different as NSU shot 46.4 percent in the first half.
"Too little too late. We didn't shoot it very well to start the second half," head coach
Fala Bullock said. "We had several empty possessions that don't exactly get your confidence up. You gotta defend better than what we did.
"We poofed a lot of layups and it's been reoccurring for us so we have to get better about playing through contact and finishing."
Senior duo
Shae Sanchez and
Cenia Hayes were a combined 5-26 from the floor for the game and Collins' 19-point 13-rebound double-double couldn't will NSU to victory. Sanchez scored all of her seven points in the second half while the Lee twins each netted seven but in the first half.
"Zaria is consistency and gets her shots up. The girls trust her so they try to get her the ball. She's the go-to guy and she wants that responsibility, she wants that."
Collins had six offensive rebounds to lead the team for the fourth time this season while Sanchez's six assists led for the sixth time in the campaign.
NSU slowed the Gorillas' second-leading scorer Tristan Gegg but DaMitz did her damage on the dribble drive scoring 25.
Northeastern State hosts Missouri Southern Saturday with tip scheduled for 1:30 p.m. inside the Event Center. MOSO is 5-8 on the season and the Lions won the first meeting on Dec. 3 in Joplin.
NOTES: The RiverHawks had 10 turnovers and improved their overall margin…Collins played 40 minutes for the second straight game…First time in 2020-21 that only one player scored in double figures.
