Lady Rangers upend Temple in OT

The Ranger College women's basketball team put themselves back in the chase for a postseason berth on Wednesday night by grinding out a wild 65-64 overtime victory over the Temple College Lady Leopards at home in the Ron Butler Gymnasium.

With the win, Ranger improved to 14-5 for the year and, more importantly, to 4-2 in Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference play. That mark pulls Ranger into a four-way tie for second in the conference standings.

Shan'Qaylia Stanton spurred Ranger to the win with a clutch effort down the stretch. The guard knocked down four free throws in the final 1:55 of the overtime frame and helped Ranger rally from a third-quarter deficit.

After Temple's Alena Johnson had given the Lady Leopards a 64-61 lead in the OT period by draining a three-point shot from the corner, Stanton used her quickness to drive into the lane and draw back-to-back fouls. She converted all four shots – the last two coming with just 1:11 left in the contest.

Temple had one last gasp. The Lady Leopards gained control of the ball under the RC basket with four-tenths of a second left in OT. Temple failed to get the shot off before the final buzzer, however.

Ranger, which had dropped its last two conference outings, looked solid early. The Lady Rangers outscored Temple in each of the first two quarters and took a 32-27 cushion into the half.

The Lady Leopards, who fell to 1-5 in NTJCAC play, roared back in the third. They outpointed Ranger by a 17-11 margin in the first 10 minutes of the second half and took a slim 44-43 lead into the fourth quarter.

Ranger will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Cisco.