TAHLEQUAH – At the end of a basketball game in which she'd mostly struggled, Northeastern State's Courtney Lee made the winning plays in the final seconds on Saturday afternoon against Washburn (Kan.).

Lee's driving layup with 5.1 seconds left put the RiverHawks ahead, and she rebounded a Washburn miss and made two clinching free throws with three-tenths of a second left as NSU edged the Ichabods 66-62 at the NSU Event Center.

NSU (11-10, 7-8 MIAA) remained in a tie for eighth place in the conference standings with Emporia State (Kan.), which edged Rogers State 79-77 in Claremore. The top 10 teams in the regular-season standings will advance to the MIAA tournament in Kansas City, Mo. – something the RiverHawks haven't done since 2018. Washburn (11-10, 6-9) lost its fourth straight game and dropped into 10^th place in the league standings.

NSU has won as many as 11 games for the first time since the 2014-15 season, when the RiverHawks finished 12-16.

Lee, a junior from Sallisaw, entered Saturday as NSU's second-leading scorer at 12.3 points per game, but she picked up two fouls in the first 75 seconds against the Ichabods and received her fourth foul with 1:04 left in the third quarter. Limited as a result to only 15 minutes of playing time, she'd scored only three points before her final burst gave her seven for the game.

NSU trailed by as many as 14 points, that coming at 46-32 with 2:33 left in the third quarter. The RiverHawks responded with a 16-3 run and pulled within 49-48 on a three-point play by Tor'e Alford with 8:45 left and took their first lead at 56-55 on a driving layup by Grace Abercrombie with 4:00 left.

Mackenzie Gamble's 3-pointer pushed Washburn back ahead 58-57 with 2:04 left before Tess Talo Tomokino's layup with 1:46 left gave NSU the lead for good at 59-58. Lee hit a free throw with 18 seconds left to extend the RiverHawks' lead to 62-60, but Aubree Dewey pulled the Ichabods even with a layup with :08 left before Lee's heroics. After Lee's final basket, Dewey missed a jumper for Washburn, with Lee grabbing the rebound, her sixth of the game.

Alford scored 17 points to lead NSU while Abercrombie added 15. NSU won despite being outrebounded 45-34, in good part because the RiverHawks committed only seven turnovers. NSU combined to block six Washburn shots, with Emily Weathers and Halie Jones recorded two blocks apiece.

Liz Boyd and Nia McKenzie led Washburn with 12 points each, while Dewey had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

NSU has seven more regular-season games remaining and will host in-state rival Rogers State next Saturday.