WICHITA, Kan. – Two players entered double figures as Northeastern State (8-7, 4-5 MIAA) emerged the winners of a third straight contest and a second straight away from Tahlequah as the RiverHawks took a 68-62 winning result over Newman (2-14, 1-9 MIAA) Saturday afternoon.
The victory places NSU above .500 overall and marks their first three-game MIAA winning streak since the 2013-14 season.
The RiverHawks were the aggressors in the early going, opening the game on a 10-3 run while getting the Jets tangled up on the offensive side, forcing Newman into seven turnovers in the matchup's first five minutes.
The Jets cut the lead to two off of a brief 5-0 scoring run, but NSU answered with six unanswered of their own to take a 16-8 lead with 4:02 left in the opening period, putting themselves in the driver's seat to take a 18-13 score into the following quarter. Another +5 stanza despite 42.9% (6-of-14) across the following ten minutes gave the visitors a double-digit advantage entering intermission.
NSU fought off multiple brief scoring runs from the opposition in the second half, but the lead never got to fewer than five points, while it extended to as many as 16 en route to the weekend victory.
Tess Talo Tomokino led the way on offense with 15 points while also making a large impact on the other end with five steals. It placed second behind
Halie Jones, who logged six of the team's 14.
Courtney Lee scored 14 in the win.
Northeastern State returns to Tahlequah on Thursday to face Central Missouri at 5:30 p.m. in the NSU Event Center.
