TAHLEQUAH -- NSU men's basketball travels to Edmond to start its season this Friday and Saturday for the Central Region Challenge. The RiverHawks will see Northwestern Oklahoma first at 5:30 p.m. inside Central Oklahoma's Hamilton Field House and they will play the University of Mary on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
A quick look back
Northeastern State opened the season for the University of Tulsa on Monday where they hung with the Golden Hurricane during stretches trailing by a possession in the second half. Ethan Blackmon shined for the RiverHawks off the bench scoring a game-high 21 points on 10-for-13 shooting. Trey Phipps had 16 in his unofficial debut for the RiverHawks and Keon Edwards had 14 points.
About Northwestern Oklahoma
Northwestern Oklahoma was picked to finish in fourth place in the Great American Conference and had one first-place vote in its preseason poll. The Rangers went 17-13 last season (14-8 GAC) and lost to Arkansas Tech in the GAC Tournament Semifinals. Camron McDowell averaged a team-leading 15.9 points per game and shot 37.9 percent from the 3-point arc to make the All-GAC Second Team.
The series
Outside of Central Oklahoma this season, Northeastern State's next longest active series is Northwestern. The series dates back 99 years, and the meeting on Friday is the 127th, with the RiverHawks winning three of the last four meetings. The Rangers lead the overall series 65-61, with 27 wins consecutively when the series started.
About Mary
The University of Mary started its season a week earlier where they went 1-2 in Montana. The Mauraders went 7-21 (2-20 NSIC) last season with their win at NSU being the lone one of the season. In the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) preseason poll, Mary is slated to finish last. NCAA Division I Prairie View A&M transfer Kevin McGaskey is an NSIC preseason player to watch and in three games this year he averaged 10.7 points per game.
The series
The RiverHawks are 2-1 against Mary all-time with the meeting Saturday in Edmond being the second. Weather prevented a trip to Mary in 2022.
Up next
The RiverHawks will have their home opener on Thursday, Nov. 14 with Haskell for this year's Nike N7 game.
