RiverHawks Battle Kingsville in LSC Tournament Opener
Bartlesville, Okla. - Northeastern State with a large bulls-eye on its back, enters the quarterfinal round as the top seed of the Lone Star Conference Tournament from the North Division Thursday.
The RiverHawks, ranked No. 4 in the South Central Regional rankings, puts its 24-5 record on the line against the South's Division's No. 4 seed Texas A&M-Kingsville (18-9) at 2:30 p.m. at Bartlesville High School's Bruin Field House.
Other quarterfinals games will have Texas Woman's playing Tarleton State at noon, followed by NSU and Kingsville at 2:30 p.m. , Abilene Christian and Central Oklahoma at 6 p.m. with Southeastern State playing West Texas A&M in the nightcap at 8:30 p.m.
The RiverHawks and Javelinas played on Dec. 10th at Jack Dobbins Field House with NSU taking a 72-51 victory.
This will be Northeastern State's third consecutive trip into the LSC Women's Championship field as the No.1 seed under RiverHawks head coach Randy Gipson, who has qualified teams into the tournament nine times.
"We're excited about this phase of our season and feel our ladies have worked hard," said Gipson. "We have progressed as a team and put ourselves in a position we wanted to be in as a top seed and division champions.
"Kingsville as any team you are going to play this time of the year brings some real concerns. These are all good teams that have earned their way into this tournament. Kingsville is a senior oriented team and very guard oriented. They have some people who can put points on the board," said Gipson.
Felicia Soza, 5-8 senior guard, leads the Javelinas scoring with a 15.7 scoring average. The Kingsville club enters tournament play averaging 76 points an outing. Soza is followed in the Javelinas scoring by Kayla Nayor, 5-5 senior point guard, who is averaging 11.6 points.
"The big issue is going to be guarding their guards," said Gipson. "They use a dribble weave offense with a lot of drives into the basket. It requires the defense to work hard and be alert. "
The RiverHawks are led by the North Division Player of the Year Jasmine Webb, who is averaging 12.1 points a contest. She is followed by Cristy Nitz at 8.8, Alix Perkins, who will be making her first start in a week, is scoring 8.0 points, followed by Jessica White and Megan Fraley at 7.9 and 7.5 respectively.
Its been Fraley who has had the hot shooting hand the past two games, draining 13 treys.
"We have had excellent guard play the past few weeks," said Gipson. "But Jasmine (Webb) has taken her game to a new level, having several double-doubles.
"And, Megan has gotten to the point where she is comfortable and understands the system we want to execute and has become accustomed to playing with the teammates she has," said Gipson.
But, its defense that has propelled the RiverHawks success this season. The team gives up just 5t5.5 points per outing, second in the Lone Star Conference, is also second in field goal percentage defense (.368) and tops the charts in rebounding defense at 29.8. NSU also has the best assist/ratio in the LSC with Fraley the top player in the Lone Star Conference in this category.
Northeastern State enters the tournament with an 8-game winning streak and hasn't lost since a 77-74 setback at Central Oklahoma on Feb. 1.
