Tiara Abron tied a season-high 18 points, as Northwestern State put forth a dominant second half to pull away with a 65-49 Southland Conference women’s basketball victory over visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday afternoon on Mike McConathy Court at Prather Coliseum.
NSU (8-7, 5-2) rebounded from the loss last time out against UTRGV by out-scoring AMCC (2-12, 1-6) 41-24 in the final 20 minutes after trailing by one at halftime.
“It was a great bounceback win,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “I thought the girls showed a lot of toughness today. It was pretty slow in the second quarter but we came out from halftime ready to go and they regrouped from the last loss and got it together. I am happy we were able to do it in front of the home crowd and on Fork Cancer Day. I am just overall proud of the group.”
Abron scored all 18 points in the final 20:03. In the first 19:57, she missed all three of her field goal attempts, but made six of her final eight shot attempts, starting with a 3-pointer to end the half and cut the deficit to one at recess.
“That last shot I made going into halftime, that is what turned me up,” Abron said. “We all fed off that last play going into half and we continued to go from there.”
The Lady Demons used that momentum to take control in the second half. It jumpstarted a 13-4 run spanning the two halves to take a 37-29 lead and AMCC never cut the deficit to under five the rest of the way.
After shooting 34.6 percent in the first half, NSU shot a blistering 60 percent in the second half, including 4-for-8 from deep. In the second half, the Demons scored on seven of their first 11 possessions, including three of their first four.
Northwestern shot 47.1 percent for the game, the best mark this season against a Division I opponent.
Carla Celaya posted her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Four Northwestern players finished in double figures, led by Abron’s 18. She was joined by Valentine (15), Celaya and Clarence Djuela (10). Vernell Atamah was hampered by four trouble and finished with nine points.
The Lady Demons head on the road for three consecutive SLC games, starting with a trip to Houston Christian on Thursday. The next game at Prather Coliseum is against East Texas A&M on Jan. 24.
