By Monty Franks
MIAMI, Okla. — Assuming sole possession of first place in the Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference Monday night with a 67-48 victory over Northern Oklahoma College-Enid, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College travels to Tishomingo for a 5:30 p.m. conference clash Thursday with Murray State College.
Ranked No. 10 in the nation, the Lady Norse hold a one-game lead over NOC-Enid with a perfect 6-0 conference record. With a 15-game winning streak in place the Lady Norse are 16-1 on the season while the Northern Jets are 13-4 overall.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been on the road and making the three and a half hour trip to Murray is kind of scary,” Lady Norse head coach Jim Rowland said. “With a 72-66 win over Western State Monday, they are on a four-game winning streak of their own.”
Under the direction of third year head coach Jeff Cellum the Murray Lady Aggies are fourth in the conference with a 4-3 record and are 8-9 overall.
“With them at home and on a winning streak it’s going to be tough,” Rowland said. “We’re going to have to make sure we’re locked in because they do a lot of dribble-drive and 3-point shooting on offense.
“They also attack the rim at both ends of the court, so we will have to be ready for them,” Rowland said. “So far they’ve won five of eight games played on their home court.”
True to form against NOC-Enid, the Lady Norse fell behind 10-2 with 3:18 left in the opening quarter. Two 3-pointers by Sarah Garvie and one by Alex Greenhowa along with a free throw by Carley Frymire ignited the Lady Jets outburst.
Field goals in the paint by Lady Norse post players Sara Boric and Hatty Nawezhi rallied NEO to a 13-6 deficit to start the second quarter.
“We had another very lethargic start in the first quarter and most of the second quarter,” Rowland said. “We missed some easy shots and made some turnovers that caused us to fall behind.”
Trailing 18-14 midway through the second quarter, NEO sophomore guard Jennah Coffman came off the bench and sank two straight 3-pointers to produce a 20-18 lead for the Lady Norse with 3:26 until halftime.
A 3-pointer by Kamry Orr along with a field goal and free throw by Nawezhi allowed the Lady Norse to carry a 26-20 lead to the locker room at intermission.
“During halftime I told our girls in a nice voice that I saw two problems that we had,” Rowland said. “First, we gave up eight offensive rebounds after getting the initial stop.
“Then, I also said that we weren’t playing like us,” Rowland said. “I told them that if we correct those two things, we could be up by 20 points on a very good Enid team.
“Everything that we were doing in the first two quarters, Enid was not stopping us,” Rowland said. “We got our points in the paint, we got our looks on the perimeter, but the ball wouldn’t fall and we weren’t in rhythm and we were back on our heals.”
The Lady Norse followed up a 20-point second quarter by outscoring the Lady Jets by a 27-14 margin in the third quarter to build a 53-34 cushion.
“We did a great job of getting into transition, holding them to one shot and everything became a little quicker,” Rowland said. “Then, we were also able to take away the three ball which was their bread and butter.”
Both teams tallied 14 points each during the fourth quarter.
Orr led all scorers with a 20-point performance with six assists and five steals while Coffman contributed 16 points.
Nawezhi turned in her fourth double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds along with Boric’s double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Maria Delgado contributed 5 points for NEO along with Mariah Green 3 and Mikayla Shulanberger 2.
Garvie paced the Lady Jets with 13 points while Greenhowa added 10, Frymire 9, Dossou Ndiaye 8, Kiki Robinson 4, Krisha Young 2 and Kyndal Pulley 2.