The Lady Buffs started their season on the road in Weatherford, Okla on Nov. 12 against Northwestern Oklahoma State in a neutral court game.

The Lady Buffs jumped out to a four-point lead early in the first half, but the lead was quickly cut down by NWOSU with both teams leading by one to two points through the rest of the half. The teams went into halftime tied at 35-35.

The second half saw NWOSU rattle off five consecutive points before WTAMU’s Devin Griffin broke the streak with a lay-up to bring WT within three points of their opposition. However, they couldn’t stop the Lady Rangers, who went on a 9-2 streak, leading 50-39 with 14:27 left in the game.Ashley Leven would attempt to stop NWOSU with a free throw then a jumper to make the score 50-42 but WT would then see themselves lose six points with just over three minutes left in the game. The Lady Buffs would try to make a comeback as Casey Land first scored on a free throw and then a three-pointer to make the tally 78-75 with 29 seconds left on the clock.

The last seconds of the game would be full of excitement as WT fouled and NWOSU used both free throws to spread the points lead to five. After NWOSU scored one more time, Lacee Logan pulled off a three-pointer as the buzzer went off to make the final score 81-78.

“We just have to do a better job of handling our first game jitters,” Head Coach Krista Gerlich said. “I thought we did a decent job of executing things that need to get executed, except executing things means finishing the job and they didn’t finish that by making the basket.”

Devin Griffin led the WT scorers with 16 points and Joni Unruh made a big splash in her first game since a season-ending injury last year with 15 points. Chontiquah White and Casey Land also made the highlights with 14 points and 11 rebounds for White and five assists and five steals for Land.

The Lady Buffs continue their season on the road with a Nov. 19 game in Colorado Springs, Colo. against UC-Colorado Springs at 5 p.m. CDT.