LAWRENCE, Kan.— Coming off an upset win Thursday night at Wichita State, the Northwestern State women’s basketball team fought back from a 20-point deficit in the second half to cut it to single digits in the final quarter, but could not complete the comeback in a 75-60 loss at Kansas on Sunday afternoon at historic Allen Fieldhouse.
Northwestern (1-2) found itself trailing 45-25 early in the second half against a Big 12 team that returned much of its scoring from last year, but the Demons fought back on the strength of last year’s Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, Vernell Atamah, to cut the deficit to seven. A late 13-2 run from the Jayhawks (2-0) put the game away in the final seven minutes of action.
With the Demons trailing by that 20-point margin, Atamah came alive with 15 of her team-high 19 points during an extended 29-16 run to cut the deficit to 61-54 with 7:35 to play.
The sophomore from Mesquite, Texas, has poured in 64 points so far this season to lead the Southland Conference.
Against Kansas, she only needed seven shots to score the 19 points, making 4-of-7 from the field, including 3-of-4 from deep and 8-of-9 from the free throw line.
Her work in the offseason shooting from behind the arc has paid off, as she has made 52 percent from deep so far (13-of-25).
The Jayhawks had a response, holding NSU without a made field goal from Atamah’s basket and foul to cut it to 61-54 all the way until Nya Valentine’s jumper with 16 seconds remaining.
In the first half, Atamah drained a 3-pointer less than three minutes into the game to cut the deficit to 7-5, but that was her only basket of the first half, as she was saddled with foul trouble and was limited to 10 minutes in the opening half.
In the first half, when Atamah was out on the floor, NSU only trailed 18-14, but in the minutes she was out, the Demons were out-scored 21-9, as NSU trailed 39-23 at halftime.
NSU could not stop the Jayhawks inside the arc, as the home team scored 63 of 75 points either from the paint or the free throw line.
Coming back after a three-game Midwest swing, the Demons play in front of the Prather Coliseum crowd for a pair, starting with Saturday’s 6 o’clock home opener with Champion Christian.
VOLLEYBALL – Saturday in Commerce, Texas, Northwestern State took its first set victory in league play from the East Texas A&M Lions before falling 3-1 in Southland Conference action.
The Demons (1-27, 0-14 SLC) barely missed two chances Thursday night to claim a set win in a homecourt 3-0 loss to the Lions. (9-16, 7-7 SLC) and threatened again in a 25-23 second-set loss. They got over the hump after halftime.
The Demons came out strong in the third set as they had a 15-10 lead following a kill by Samaya Wesson. NSU stretched their lead out to 21-15 late in the third set after two more kills by Wesson and an ace by Reagan Hamm. Wesson and Deja Benjamin’s assisted block closed the third set. The win was the first set victory in conference play for Northwestern.
“I’m glad for the girls,” said first-year head coach Ben Kazeta. “Getting a set win is an improvement. We try to get one percent better each day and we did that today.”
The season ends with home games Thursday night and Saturday afternoon this week in Prather Coliseum.
