TAHLEQUAH –
Anthony Allen's stellar start continued Monday evening with the sophomore leading Northeastern State past Ozarks (Ark.) 72-70 inside the NSU Event Center. The Broken Arrow native paced all players on the floor with 19 points and came away with the go-ahead dunk with six seconds remaining to give NSU its third consecutive win.
Northeastern State (4-1) battled past a sluggish shooting evening where they shot 11-for-30 through the game's opening 20 minutes. Ozarks led as many as 12 points in the first period with the NCAA Division III team proving to be a tough adversary to get past. The RiverHawks relied on the three to get them back in the game and they hit four in the final 12 minutes of the second half to make it a 36-33 game at the intermission.
Out of the locker room, NSU hit consecutive buckets to take their first lead of the evening but they couldn't shake the Eagles off who dropped seven treys in the second half. The final trey of the evening for Ozarks came with ten seconds left from NBA range to give them a 70-69 lead.
With the tables turned and NSU down to their final chance to claim victory,
Ethan Blackmon found
Anthony Allen on a cut to the basket resulting in a go-ahead two-handed slam alongside an Ozarks foul to provide an exclamation point from the sophomore.
Allen sank his fifth free throw of the night to follow it up and give the RiverHawks a 72-70 advantage with six seconds remaining. A concluding defensive stop against the Ozarks offense sealed the win for NSU, their fourth across five non-conference games this season and their third triumph in Tahlequah.
"[I'm] really proud of our guys for pulling that out," head men's basketball coach
Ja Havens said on the close win, "We could be having a different feeling right now had we not made a play when we needed to make a play there."
On the evening, the RiverHawks shot 25-of-61 (41.0%) and overcame a good shooting night from the Eagles (26-of-56, 46.4%) to take the win. One of the key factors in the narrow decision proved to be NSU's performance at the free throw line, where they were a perfect 14-of-14, knocking down eight more charity stripe tries than their opponents (six-of-eight).
Meanwhile, Allen's 19-point offering occurred alongside six rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and a steal. In his fifth start of his collegiate career, he provided a seven-of-ten shooting night with a flawless five-of-five mark at the charity stripe.
"He's got a really big heart and a big motor," Havens said of Allen, "If nothing else, that just shows you when you play really hard and care a lot, good things can happen, and he deserves it as much as anybody."
Trey Quartlebaum was an impact performer, as well, with the graduate student providing 15 points.
Caison Hartloff made great use of his 17 minutes off the bench, finishing third on the team in scoring (13 points), contributing three makes from deep range while accounting for four steals.
Northeastern State will be idle until Nov. 30 when they will open MIAA play at home with Fort Hays State.
