The Northwestern State women’s basketball team had a record shutdown defensive performance Saturday to trigger a 28-point road win and a sweep of its south Texas road swing. The NSU men wrap up their regular season tonight in Edinburgh, Texas, hoping to head home with a Southland Conference Tournament berth.
LADY DEMONS: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was restricted to the fewest points a Northwestern team has ever allowed in a Southland Conference game, in a dominant 63-35 NSU win on Saturday afternoon on the Gulf Coast.
Winning its third in a row, Northwestern (16-13, 13-8) held AMCC (5-23, 4-17) to just 27.8 percent from the field and 4-for-21 from deep in the win, the second game in the last five where it held its opponent to 28 percent shooting or worse.
Combined with other outcomes, the win meant the Lady Demons are locked into the No. 5 seed in the upcoming SLC Tournament beginning next Monday in Lake Charles. They wrap up the regular season at home Tuesday night at 6:30 against UNO.
Northwestern came out hot in the second half, turning a close game at halftime into a one-sided affair. After a bucket cut the Demons lead to 21-18 on the first possession of the third quarter, NSU embarked on a 15-2 run, highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers from Nya Valentine and Tiara Abron.
“I’m super proud of the way the group responded after being challenged at half,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “Defensively, they really dug in and showed a lot of toughness.”
Valentine and Vernell Atamah each made five triples, part of an afternoon in which NSU made 13 3-pointers, their fourth game at least that many made triples this season.
Atamah’s five put her on the brink of a school record, as she vaulted into second place for made 3-pointers in a season with 85, just three behind Beatrice Attura’s 88 set in the 2016-17 season.
Atamah continued a strong season with another 20-point game. The sophomore posted her sixth double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Expanding the lead to 17 after three quarters, NSU held AMCC to just six points in the final period to slam the door on an emphatic road win, improving its record in true road contests to 8-7.
Carla Celaya tied a career high with 13 rebounds to go along with seven points. Both Celaya and Atamah secured four offensive rebounds as NSU had 15 offensive boards, the fourth consecutive game in which the Demons had that many.
NSU MEN: Tonight in Edinburgh, Texas, the Demons close the regular season, facing a red-hot UT-Rio Grande Valley squad inside the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The game tips off at 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed live on ESPN+ with radio coverage available on the Demon Sports Network and flagship station 100.7 FM KZBL in Natchitoches.
The Demons’ regular-season finale has plenty of Southland Conference Tournament implications.
Northwestern (10-20, 8-13) enters the matchup alone in seventh place, one game ahead of three teams who are tied for eighth place. Two of those teams – Lamar and HCU – play one another while the third, UIW, squares off with regular-season champion Stephen F. Austin.
There are several combinations that can land NSU in the tournament, but the simplest is for the Demons to win. Doing so would clinch the No. 7 seed in the eight-team bracket.
In Saturday’s 71-59 defeat at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Northwestern controlled much of the first half, shooting 45 percent and taking a 30–29 lead into the break.
After Micah Thomas knocked down an early second-half 3-pointer to give the Demons a 37–34 advantage, momentum appeared to be on NSU’s side.
Instead, Corpus responded with a decisive 21–2 run, turning a three-point deficit into a double-digit lead in a matter of minutes. The Demons shot just 32 percent after halftime.
Now Northwestern turns its attention to a UTRGV (17–13, 13–8) team that has been one of the league’s hottest over the past month.
The Vaqueros have won 11 of their last 13 games, including an eight-game winning streak during that stretch. Notably, the Demons were the last team to defeat UTRGV before that run began
UTRGV enters Monday’s matchup fresh off a 63–55 win over East Texas A&M on Saturday.
The first meeting this season delivered late-game drama. Northwestern earned a 64–63 win on Mike McConathy Court after erasing a 14-point deficit.
