MOORHEAD – After squandering a 24-point first-half lead, Ciara Pettis hit a go-ahead free throw for Northwest with 0.3 seconds left to lift the Lady Rangers over Mississippi Delta 77-76 Monday night at J.T. Hall Coliseum.

Northwest improved to 12-8 overall and 7-3 in MACJC north division play with its seventh win of the year by two points or less.

Mississippi Delta (2-15, 1-8) began its comeback with a 19-9 advantage in the third quarter to cut the lead to 60-51 heading to the fourth.

What was a 66-55 Lady Ranger lead with 7:32 to play, quickly turned to just a 66-64 lead thanks to a 9-0 Lady Trojan run by way of NaTanya Wilkerson and Alexis Augustus.

It stayed within a two possession game for the final five minutes of regulation until MDCC tied the game at 76-76 on Sabrina White's layup with 2.8 seconds left.

With no timeouts left, Northwest tried to get up the floor quickly to possibly win the game and was helped by a MDCC foul with 0.3 seconds left. The Lady Trojans elected to press Northwest the length of the floor and it came back to cost them. 

Pettis calmly sunk the first free throw and missed the second as Northwest escaped with only its fourth road win of the year.

Behind Pettis' career-high 19 points (13-of-19 FT), Chrissah Shaw added 17 points and 10 boards, Mercades Ward added 11 and Abbreanna Miller had 10. Augustus had 17 to lead three Lady Trojans in double figures.

MDCC owned a slight edge in field goal percentage, on the glass and in bench points, but Northwest led for all but 43 seconds on the night.

Northwest will host Coahoma on Thursday, Feb. 15 for its final regular season home game. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. on Sophomore Night and live video/stats are available through nwccrangers.com.