SWOSU Road Woes Continue

February 17, 2007

TAHLEQUAH – Southwestern Oklahoma State University was unable to remedy its trend of lackluster play on the road losing 81-73 to Northeastern State University Saturday in Tahlequah. Even with the loss, SWOSU’s seventh straight on the road, the Bulldogs still have an impressive 16-8 overall record and remained tied for fourth in the Lone Star Conference North Division at 4-6.

SWOSU will play its final home game Monday against Cameron University. The Bulldogs will close the regular season against Texas A&M-Commerce Saturday on the road. SWOSU will likely need to win at least one of the two games in order to have a chance at qualifying for the eight-team LSC Postseason Tournament scheduled to begin Tuesday, Feb. 27.

Jose Garcia had 17 points and Ryan Mann added 13 for the Bulldogs who were losers to NSU for the first time in six tries. Lamont George had 19 points for the Redmen who improved to 9-15 and 4-6 with the win.

SWOSU trailed the entire second half after being down 39-34 at the break. The Bulldogs got behind by as many as 11 before they had a brief flurry thanks to a basket by Reggie Gunn and a three-pointer by Mann that brought them back. Mann’s three-pointer put SWOSU back in the game at 61-56 with 7:39 to play.

NSU scored the next five points on its way to a 14-5 run. Mike Bontrager sunk a long-range three-pointer to give NSU a 75-61 lead with 2:46 left and put the game away for good.

SWOSU made only 27-of-69 (39%) of its shots, its second worst shooting effort of the season. NSU was much more efficient making 27-of-51 (53%) of its field goal attempts. The Redmen out rebounded SWOSU by 10 and held the Bulldogs fast-break offense in check the entire 40 minutes.