BETHANY, Okla. -- The Northwest Missouri State University women's basketball team (23-8 overall) saw its season come to a close with a 62-47 defeat in the Central Region quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division II Tournament inside the Sawyer Center. 

Northwest shot 30.8% (16-of-52) from the field and 27.8% (5-of-18) from the 3PT range, as the Tigers shot 40.9% (27-of-66) and 18.2% (2-of-11) from deep. 

Senior Jayna Green scored Northwest's first two points of the game off a pair of free throws at the 5:10 mark. Fort Hays State opened the game on a 6-0 run before Green's free throws, as the Bearcats found themselves 0-of-5 from the field when the media timeout hit, trailing 6-2. Later on, a cold 1-of-12 shooting from the field from Northwest made the deficit 16-8 after one. 

Junior Caely Kesten scored her first points of the afternoon after drilling a three-pointer to start the second quarter. Northwest would eventually cut the deficit to two after a Vasquez free-throw. At the break, Northwest trailed 26-22. 

Junior Peyton Kelderman then nailed a transition three, followed by a Fields hook shot to cut the Tiger lead to four with 3:30 to play in the third. Fort Hays State led 43-36 with one quarter to play. 

Northwest was outscored 19-11 in the final quarter to drop the Central Region quarterfinal, 62-47. 

Kesten led the charge for the Bearcats with 13 points and five rebounds. Hartnett piled on nine points and two assists. Fort Hays State's Olivia Hollenbeck (20) and Katie Wagner (19) combined for 39 out of the team's 62 total points to lead the Tigers. 

Fort Hays State will take on the winner of No. 2 seed Missouri Western versus No. 7 seed Minnesota State tomorrow at 5 p.m.