By Brett Brown

For The Observer

The Northwest Mississippi Community College Lady Rangers were unable to recapture any of their magic from the regular season and fell to the Baton Rouge Lady Bears, 73-69, in the opening round of the Region XXIII Tournament on March 1 at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the Mississippi College campus in Clinton.

Northwest, the MACJC North Division champion and No. 3 seed at the region tournament, ended their season with a record of 14-8. Baton Rouge, the runner-up in the Mississippi-Louisiana Conference Tournament, was the No. 5 seed.

The Lady Rangers finished 1-2 in the post-season after winning one game and losing one the week before at the MACJC State Tournament in Scooba.

"For whatever reason, we couldn't seem to match the intensity we had during the regular season," said Northwest head coach Don Edwards."

Northwest couldn't overcome a poor shooting performance against Baton Rouge. The Lady Rangers converted 21-of-63 attempts from the field, including five-of-20 three-point tries. Northwest was 22-of-37 at the free throw line.

Northwest fell behind, 37-24, with under a minute to play in the first half, but Lady Ranger sophomore guard De'Kisha Fondon of Water Valley drained a three-pointer to cut Baton Rouge's lead to 37-27 at intermission.

Northwest opened the second half with a 19-11 run to trim the margin to 48-46 with 9:37 remaining. Baton Rouge kept the pressure on Northwest by extending its lead to 67-59 with 2:58 left.

The Lady Rangers made one final run by out-scoring the Lady Bears 10-4 over the next two minutes. Fondon and sophomore guard Tamara Wadlington of Oxford connected on back-to-back three-pointers to get Northwest close at 71-69 with 34 seconds on the clock.

Baton Rouge sealed the win with two free throws with under 20 seconds remaining in the contest.

Wadlington led the Lady Rangers by scoring 23 points, while Fondon added 11. Northwest sophomore forward Hope Adams of Oxford collected her seventh double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds.