TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State overcame a cool shooting first half and pulled away late Saturday to beat Newman 64-56 inside the NSU Event Center. 

Rashad Perkins was a pair of rebounds short of a double-double with 18 points.  Ryan Gendron had 11 off the bench, with Tristan Green and Dillon Bailey adding ten.  

The RiverHawks' offense sputtered through the first half, shooting 36.7 percent from the field and trailing as many as nine to the Jets.   Newman ran out of gas in the second half missing 14 of their final 18 shot attempts in the last 12 minutes.  Northeastern State out-scored the Jets 24-to-9 in that span, with freshman Anthony Allen being a spark scoring eight points. 

"We could have folded, we didn't have any juice to start the game, we don't believe in excuses, but we didn't have the energy level we needed to in the first half," said head coach Ja Havens.  

"I'm really proud of our fight down the stretch because we need to finish the game that way.  Anthony came in and gave us some energy, gave us some spark, and really impacted the game."

The RiverHawks (8-5, 5-4 MIAA) limited themselves to just seven turnovers, matching a season-low for the squad.  Northeastern State's win moves them to 8-0 all-time at home when facing Newman with the series lead going to 10-3 in favor of NSU.

Newman was led by Stevie Strong, who had 18 points; the Jets slipped to 5-10 (1-8 MIAA) with the loss.

Northeastern State will be on the road next to face Central Missouri on Thursday evening.