TAHLEQUAH–
Halie Jones had 12 of the RiverHawks' final 14 points Saturday night as they pulled away late to beat the University of Mary 74-66 inside the NSU Event Center. The win was the first for head coach
Keith Ferguson who took over the program in April of this year.
Northeastern State (1-1) was led by
Tor'e Alford who had 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Jones finished the night with 16 and
Tess Talo Tomokino came off the bench with 13 points.
The free throw line was NSU's friend Saturday and they connected on 28-of-35, the team's highest total since the 2003-04 season.
"I'm so dang proud of our kids we had a lot of things go wrong and it feels really good because they wanted it. They were down and really bounced back," said head coach
Keith Ferguson.
I was proud of how hard our kids played, everyone got in and gave us the minutes that we needed. Patty (
Patrycja Pawlata) came in and gave us 21 minutes … she was so good on their big. I'm so proud of that kid because she has maybe worked as hard as anyone else to improve her footwork."
The RiverHawks faced an early 8-3 deficit in the first quarter against the Marauders before finishing the period with an 11-0 scoring run. Notably, the NSU defense held the Marauders to just 1-of-14 shooting across the opening ten minutes, while the scoring run gave them a six-point cushion entering the next stanza.
While Mary (2-3) recovered in the second quarter and outscored NSU 19-14 over the rest of the half, the home side pieced together a stellar third frame, shooting 7-of-11 alongside seven converted free throws on eight attempts to take a 51-44 lead into the fourth quarter.
Despite the Marauders finding more production on the offensive end in the final period (8-of-14 from the floor), the RiverHawks found five makes of their own across the closing ten minutes and paired it with 11 made free throws to seal the win.
The RiverHawks return to the floor Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. when they face Haskell inside the NSU Event Center.
