POPLARVILLE - Pearl River scored early and often in Monday evening's contest against Northwest, as the Lady Rangers returned home with a 67-36 loss.
Northwest fell behind early in the opening quarter and trailed 27-7 heading to the second period. Although the Lady Wildcats pumped the brakes just a bit before halftime, the Lady Rangers were still outscored 13-6 and trailed 40-13 entering the halftime break.
Northwest was able to close the gap a little over the course of the second half, even outscoring the Lady Wildcats 13-11 over the span of the third period. However, the deficit was just too large to overcome, as Pearl River ran its overall record to 15-1 and conference record to 5-1.
Points were hard to come by all night for the Lady Rangers, as Northwest finished just 25 percent from the floor and 18 percent from beyond the arc.
Kae'la Mitchell, who made the team's only two three-pointers, led all Northwest scorers with nine points.
Half of the Lady Rangers' 36 points came off the bench, thanks to six points from
Kennidi Dean and a five-point, five-rebound effort from
Manaca Keyes.
Marian Jenkins also collected seven points and a team-high six rebounds.
Pearl River shot 32 percent on the evening and 36 percent from three-point range. The Lady Wildcats scored 33 of their points off the bench as well, mostly due to Hama'ya Fielder's 18-point effort. J'Mani Ingram finished with 17 points and eight rebounds, followed by 10 points from Halle Traylor.
With the loss, Northwest fell to 6-9 overall and 1-5 against MACCC competition. The Lady Rangers will look to snap the skid on Thursday, January 26 against Coahoma at 5:30 P.M. The Lady Tigers (8-4, 4-1 MACCC) are coming off a 55-47 home victory against Mississippi Gulf Coast on Monday.
Fans unable to attend Thursday's showdown against Coahoma can watch the game or follow along with live stats. The game will be carried on Ranger TV (
nwccrangers.com/watch) and Action News 5 Plus (Roku/Apple TV/Channel 5.5), while live stats can be found
here.
