TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State will look to bounce back Saturday afternoon when they host Newman inside the NSU Event Center. 

Despite a pair of 20-point efforts from Dillon Bailey and Christian Cook, the RiverHawks (7-5, 4-4 MIAA) came up short at home Thursday night in a 74-65 setback to (8/9) Central Oklahoma.  Newman (5-9, 1-7 MIAA) will come to Tahlequah on a three-game skid and lost 84-77 at Rogers State. 

The Jets are 1-5 on the road this season and last in the MIAA in field goal percentage (40.6) and field goal defense (46.6).  Teams are averaging a league-high 76.2 points against Newman.  Stevie Strong leads Newman offensively with 17.0 points per game and leads the MIAA with 67 free-throw attempts.  As a freshman last season, he had 29 points and carried them to a 75-66 win over NSU in Wichita.  Stong did not play in the second meeting between the two teams in Tahlequah. 

Christian Cook leads the RiverHawks in scoring this season with 18.0 points per game, good for third-best in the MIAA.  At the free-throw line, he is one of the best in the nation, shooting 93.9 percent.  Cook has had ten consecutive games with at least ten points and needs two Saturday to reach 800 in his career.  Dillon Bailey has scored at least ten points in the last five games and is 11th in the MIAA, averaging 14.9 points per game.  He needs 19 to reach 500 career points.   As a team, the RiverHawks are shooting 51.9 percent as a group which is second-best in the MIAA.

Northeastern State has played the same starting lineup in all 12 games.  The RiverHawks and Central Missouri are the only MIAA teams to play with the same starting lineup this season.

The RiverHawks lead the overall series 8-3 over the Jets and have won all seven meetings in Tahlequah. 

Tip-off is slated for 3:30 p.m. fans can watch the game online on The MIAA Network at TheMIAANetwork.com/nsugoriverhawks.