ALVA, Okla. - The Arkansas Tech Women's Basketball team falls at Northwestern Oklahoma State 66-70 despite late fourth quarter rally. The Golden Suns move to 13-10 overall with a 10-9 record among Great American Conference opponents.

Leading the way for the Golden Suns was Jayana Sanders doing a little bit of everything with 17 points, three rebounds, three assists as well as two steals and three blocks. Following Sanders was Kaley Shipman with 14 points, six boards, four assists and ties her career-high in steals with four. Tori Lasker poured in 13 points, six rebounds and five assists. Closing out the leaders on the floor for Arkansas Tech was Nikki Metcalfe with 10 points, five boards, an assist and four blocks.

The Rangers got the scoring started with a quick layup, which was matched by a two point jumper by Lasker to put Tech on the board. Northwestern Oklahoma continued to find sucess in the paint getting a few more layups to fall and found themselves with an early 11-4 lead over Arkansas Tech with 6:31 left to go in the opening quarter. Another pair of layups gave NWOSU a ten point lead at 15-5. Freshman Alex Hill finally sparked the Golden Sun offense with layup inside. Metcalfe and Sanders would help stop the bleeding with a pair of back-to-back buckets to cut the Ranger lead to 11-15.

Northwestern Oklahoma State would hit a three ball to take a 20-11 lead, but Sanders would match it connecting on her own three. Neither side would score again in the first quarter as NWOSU would head into the second quarter with the 20-14 lead.

The Golden Suns would open the scoring in the second as Lasker went 2-of-2 from the line. A layup from Metcalfe would bring Tech within one at 21-22, but the Rangers would respond with their own layup to extend the lead back to three. Ashlei Lopez would tie the game with a three to make it 24-24 with 5:45 left in the second quarter. Northwestern Oklahoma State would close out the first half on a 7-4 run to head into the break holding a 31-28 lead over the Golden Suns.

Shipman started the second half for Arkansas Tech hot quickly sinking a shot from long range. Then, on defense, the sophomore guard picked up a steal and ran it back for a strong fastbreak layup inside to secure a quick five points to open the third quarter and give the Golden Suns a 33-31 lead over the Rangers.

Northwestern Oklahoma State would tie the game twice in the third before grabbing ahold of the lead once more at 42-37 following a made layup. Metcalfe would ensure Tech would stay close to the Rangers hitting the last two buckets of the quarter to head into the final quarter of play down 45-41.

The Rangers would only allow the Golden Suns to score four points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter as they took a 15 point lead at 60-45 with 3:48 to play. Sanders and Shipman would nail back-to-back three pointers to try and close the gap. A steal by Julie Wagner that lead to a fastbreak layup for Lasker and another three from Sanders would cut the NWOSU lead to seven at 65-58 with just 46 seconds left in the final quarter.

With 35 seconds left, Shipman picked up another steal to score a layup on the other end to make it a 60-65 hole for Tech. With just seven seconds left the Golden Suns were able to find a pair of back-to-back three point baskets from Lasker to make it a narrow 68-66 lead for the Rangers. Unfortunately, it was already too late as the 15 point comeback would come up just short as the  Golden Suns drop the game 66-70 at Northwestern Oklahoma State.

The Golden Suns will stay on the road as they travel to Weatherford, Okla. to take on their final regular season matchup across state lines on Saturday, February 19 against #20 Southwestern Oklahoma State. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.