Northeastern State could not recover from a four-minute scoreless drought midway through the second half and suffered a 71-67 home setback to UT Tyler Saturday night.
The Patriots (3-0) scored 11 unanswered points in that vital run while shooting 60 percent in the second half.
Dillon Bailey led the RiverHawks with a career-high 21 points, and Rashad Perkins had 17 with five assists.
UT Tyler outrebounded the RiverHawks by 11 with 42. Jordan Hairston paced the Patriots with 15 points, and Milan Szabo had nine rebounds.
The RiverHawks would heat up in the closing minutes shooting 8-for-12 in the final 8:29, trimming down the 12-point UT Tyler lead to a pair three different times. Each time he Patriots responded on their side of the court to widen the gap.
With six seconds left, Jaxon Jones hit a three-pointer to make it a 69-67 game, but it would be too late for NSU, with UT Tyler hitting both free throws to cut out a potential game-tying three-pointer before the buzzer.
Northeastern State shot 38.9-percent (21-54) and was 7-for-21 from the arc.
Tylor Arnold had 11 points, and five rebounds, and Christian Cook added eight.
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