SENATOBIA – Leading by 10 points at halftime, Northwest blew the doors open in the second half with a 52-point scoring outburst to defeat Tennessee Prep 90-56 on Thursday evening at Howard Coliseum.

Northwest improved to 6-1 with the victory and 5-0 at home.

Tennessee Prep started with the hot hand as back-to-back layups from Darmoni Schuman and Yassine Zlitni to take an 8-4 advantage just over five minutes into the contest. The solid start continued for the Diplomat Lions as Schuman hit the next four baskets for Tennessee Prep, including a three-pointer that would put Northwest in a 18-10 deficit with 10:26 left in the first half.

Thanks in part to the efforts of Jakobi Pearson and Kavonte Tunstall, the Rangers closed out the first half on a 28-10 scoring run and regained the lead for good on a layup from Tunstall in the paint with 3:24 left. The duo finished with a combined 18 first half points.

Although Schuman's three-pointer cut the lead to seven early in the second half, Northwest quickly created separation with a fastbreak layup from Pearson and a three from Tunstall to take a double digit lead and never look back.

Sophomore Montez Allen put the Rangers up by 21 with a layup with 12:29 left to go and the lead was soon stretched to 30 points, 79-49, on a free throw from Pearson with 5:38 remaining.

Pearson and Tunstall came away with 17 and 14 points each to lead Northwest, while Allen netted 12 points and seven rebounds. Mario Fenner, Jr. added 10 points off the bench and R.J. Duhart fell just shy of earning a double-double, scoring eight points and nine rebounds. 

Schuman led all scorers with 19 points for Tennessee Prep and JaQuan Tyus added 15 in the loss.

Northwest will have an extended break for the Thanksgiving holiday before resuming action on Monday, Dec. 2 at Southwest Mississippi.