Box Score Photo Gallery

SEARCY – Northwestern Oklahoma held Harding to only two field goals in the final 10 minutes Thursday at the Rhodes Field House and defeated the Bisons 65-58 in Great American Conference action. It was only Harding's second home loss of the season.

Harding dropped to 10-9 overall and 7-6 in the GAC. The Bisons are in fifth place among the nine teams eligible for the conference tournament and return to Rhodes on Saturday to host Southwestern Oklahoma at 4 p.m.

Northwestern, who is not eligible for the GAC Tournament as a provisional member of the conference, improved to 8-11 overall and 5-8 in conference games.

Harding led by as many as nine points in the second half and held a 52-44 lead when sophomore Antoine Burrell made a free throw with 10:28 left. The Rangers scored the next six points before Harding's Hayden Johnson made a layup with 6:57 remaining that gave the Bisons a 54-50 lead.

Northwestern scored the next seven straight points and held a 59-55 lead with 1:46 remaining. Harding's Jacob Gibson made his fifth 3-pointer of the game to trim the lead to 59-58, but the Bisons did not score again and the Rangers closed out the game with six straight points.

Gibson led Harding with 22 points and six rebounds. He was 8-of-16 from the field, including 5-of-11 from 3-point range. Johnson was the only other Harding player with more than 10 points. He scored 13 on 6-of-12 shooting.

Bison senior Weston Jameson played 37 minutes and had nine assists and no turnovers. He moved into sixth in career assists at Harding with 409.

Bruce Wright had 22 points to lead the Rangers, who shot 55 percent from the field and outscored the Bisons 36-24 in the paint. Adrian Motley added 13 points and six rebounds, and Darrian Dempsey added 12 points.

Harding shot 40 percent and made 9-of-33 3-pointers.