LAKE CHARLES – With one look from his fellow Northwestern State guard Jon Sanders II, Micah Thomas knew he had an opportunity to push the Demons into tonight’s Southland Conference Tournament semifinals at the Legacy Center.
And push he did.
Thomas’ wide-open transition 3-pointer with 17.3 seconds remaining Monday evening lifted the No. 4 seed Demons over fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 66-63, and into their third tournament semifinal in the past five seasons.
“When I saw Jon grab that rebound, he gave me a look,” Thomas said. “I sprinted. I put my head down and got ready to shoot.”
Thomas’ shot was the 12th made 3-pointer for the Demons (16-15), who advance to play No. 1 seed McNeese on the Cowboys’ home floor, Joe Dumars Court, in this afternoon’s 6 p.m. semifinal. The game will be carried nationally on ESPNU, not the usual ESPN+ platform.
The decisive trey also came after the Islanders (20-14) had erased a 10-point halftime deficit when Dian Wright-Forde split a pair of free throws with 1:13 to play.
Thomas’ game-winner was the final punch in a back-and-forth second half that saw the Islanders continually whittle down the Demons’ lead only to see Northwestern deliver repeated counterpunches.
The Islanders started the second half on an 11-3 run that cut the lead to two before Love Bettis’ personal 5-0 run made it a three-possession game.
Bettis finished with a team-high 17 points – 12 of which came in a first half where the Demons connected on 7 of 11 3-pointers. Three of those came in a game-opening 11-0 run in the first 118 seconds.
“I was a little bit in awe,” second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. “They scored those 11 points off defense. I don’t know if I called a play. They got stops, pitched the ball ahead, found Landyn (Jumawan), found Micah, found Love (Bettis). I was in shock, but trust me, I was in a good mood.”
Northwestern’s first-half lead grew to as much as 16 points before the Islanders launched their comeback.
“We knew Corpus was going to make a run,” Cabrera said. “Good teams cut the run a little shorter than others. We did that. They never took a lead. We just figured it out. I’m all about the Jimmies and Joes, and our Jimmies and Joes were good tonight. The credit goes to them.”
Thomas’ shot was made possible by a wild sequence that saw Willie Williams challenge a potential go-ahead layup by Wright-Forde before grabbing the rebound and flipping it to Sanders, who found Thomas for the game-winning bucket.
The carom was the final of Williams’ game- and career-high 13 rebounds, which included six of Northwestern’s 11 offensive rebounds.
Next up for the Demons is a third meeting of the season with the regular-season champion Cowboys.
“The elephant’s in the room,” Cabrera said. “They’re a very good team. We were down four points here with four minutes to go. We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds down the stretch. We know we can win the game, but we have to do more of the right things.”