RiverHawks Play at St. Mary's Classic

Northeastern State women will take a 3-1 record to the St. Mary's University Classic Friday and Saturday at Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio, Texas.

The RiverHawks will play host St. Mary's at 7 p.m. Friday with Texas-Permian Basin and Southeastern State opening play at 5 p.m.

Saturday's schedule has Northeastern State and Texas-Permain Basin playing at 2 p.m. and St. Mary's and Southeastern State at 4 p.m.

"This tournament is another opportunity to play some important regional games," said RiverHawks head coach Randy Gipson. "St. Mary's is a very good team.  They've been to the NCAA Tournament and have been highly ranked in the region.

"It looks like their team is no different than any of the others over the past few years.  It will be a good challenge for us.  They are very athletic, handle the ball very well and shoot very well," said Gipson.

Gipson feels the competition the RiverHawks have played thus far and the "tough games" his club has experienced will "benefit his club in Texas."

Northeastern State is coming off an impressive win over Missouri Southern State University 67-50. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak to the Lions and increased the RiverHawks series lead over the Lions to 12-9.

Junior Jasmine Webb had a breakout game against the Lions scoring 26 points and pulling down nine rebounds, just missing a double-double in the home opener.

The RiverHawks first round opponent St. Mary's enters the contest with a 1-0 record after defeating Lone Star Conference member Abilene Christian 69-66 Monday night in the season opener for both schools.

Chastity Noble led the Rattlers' scoring with 15 points as four other Rattlers scored in double-figures, Kristen Williams, Mareta Bailey 12 points, De Anna Patterson 11, and Nicole James 10.

Southeastern will be playing its season opener after losing an exhibition game to Oral Roberts University 104-57. The Savage Storm are led by the Lone Star Conference North Division pre-season Player of the Year Destiny Brown. Brown averaged 16.2 points a game and 11.5 rebounds last season.

Texas-Permian Basin opened its season against Tarleton State losing 64- 38. The Falcons lost its only exhibition test 65-52 to Wayland Baptist University. The Falcons leading scorer was Meisha Blackshear with 12 points in their loss to Tarleton State.