SENATOBIA - It didn't take long for the home crowd at Howard Coliseum to get behind Northwest on Monday evening.
An early three-pointer from
Shavurdacour Nicholas and a pair of layups in transition from
Devin Moore gave Northwest a 7-2 lead and prompted a timeout from Dyersburg State, riling up the crowd. Behind the energy of the fans and a bevy of dunks from the Rangers, Northwest eventually pulled out the 95-83 victory against the visiting Eagles.
Though Dyersburg State cut the lead down to one after the timeout with back-to-back buckets from Antonio Gause, Northwest built the lead to double digits, capping off an 11-0 run with a fastbreak layup from
Marquavous Jones. The run helped push the lead to 19-8 with 11:32 left in the first half.
With Gause's continued hot shooting, the Eagles managed to trim the deficit back to 28-26 with 7:18 remaining. However, the Rangers took back the momentum on back-to-back buckets from Nicholas and Moore, and later benefited from a pair of fastbreak dunks from
Keanu Patrick and
Thomas Tangle, pushing the lead back to 12 points with 4:24 remaining in the half.
After an Ethan Tolbert jumper cut the lead back to 10, Moore's three-pointer and another electric dunk from
Ja'Quise Richmond sent the Rangers back ahead by 15 points. Northwest stretched the gap to as many as 18 points down the stretch, before the Eagles managed to cut the deficit to 13 points at halftime, 49-36.
Northwest opened the second half exactly where it left off, as Tangle drilled a three-pointer to push the lead back to 16 points. However, it was the Eagles that came out with the momentum early in the half, as a three-pointer from Hayden Morten capped off an 11-3 run by Dyersburg State, trimming the score to 55-47.
Despite the newfound momentum from the opposition, Northwest made sure to keep the lead above double figures for the remaining 17 minutes. A layup from Moore did the trick for the Rangers, and the fireworks continued on offense the rest of the way.
Northwest sent the lead to its largest margin of 17 points with back-to-back dunks from Moore and Richmond around the midway point of the second half. To its credit, Dyersburg State also shot the ball well down the stretch, but the defense had no answer for the flashy Rangers or the energy of the crowd.
Four Northwest players reached double figures, led by Moore's 19 points and eight rebounds. Richmond also added a spark off the bench, tallying 16 points and four blocks.
Patrick and Nicholas rounded out the primary scoring for the Rangers, scoring 14 and 11 points, respectively. Patrick fell just shy of a double-double, accruing nine rebounds.
Nolan Wells also contributed nine points, along with eight rebounds from
Jordan Ealey and five assists from Tangle.
As a team, Northwest shot 44 percent from the field and 32 percent from three-point land. Dyersburg State shot 49 percent and 35 percent from three-point range, but the Eagles were just 50 percent from the free throw line.
Morten had 26 points to lead Dyersburg State, followed by 19 points, five assists and four rebounds by Gause. Marquis Nash led the Eagles in the rebound column, finishing with seven.
Northwest (1-2) will host Arkansas State Mid-South on Thursday, November 9 at 6 P.M. The game will be carried on
Ranger TV.
