LAKE CHARLES—Sunday in the first round of the Southland Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament against East Texas A&M, the second half was the deciding factor in Northwestern State’s win.
On Tuesday, it was to the detriment of fifth-seeded Northwestern (18-14), as a one-point halftime lead disappeared in a 76-67 loss to No. 4 UT-Rio Grande Valley in the tournament quarterfinals.
The Lady Demons were eliminated with an 18-14 record, while UTRGV (20-12) moved forward to a semifinal matchup with regular-season champion McNeese today. It’s the first overall winning record for NSU since 2015-16.
After holding a slim 28-27 lead at recess, the Vaqueros out-scored the Demons 30-14 in the third quarter, as UTRGV shot 9-of-11 in the period and made all four 3-point attempts, while NSU shot just 3-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from deep. The Vaqueros also made all eight of their free throw attempts in the quarter as well.
Northwestern rallied late to close within 74-70, but UTRGV’s perfect aim on free throws (20-20) preserved and extended the lead in the final minute.
“We’re all really disappointed,” Demons’ coach Anna Nimz said. “Obviously UTRGV is a phenomenal team and congrats to them.
“In the third, we came out pretty poor and they executed really well, but on the flip side, we would all say we didn’t do our early work and weren’t locked in on the back side. UTRGV was the better team today and more detailed team and that is disappointing.”
Following a pair of free throws from Vernell Atamah cut the deficit to 40-39, the Vaqueros went on a 12-1 run into a 52-40 lead late in the third.
After halftime, UTRGV shot 65 percent from the field overall, including making all five shots from deep and all 18 from the charity stripe.
While NSU trailed by as many as 13 in the final 10 minutes, the Demons fought back with one last surge behind Valentine, who poured in a career-high 30 points.
“As a team, we never believe we are completely out of things,” Valentine said. “We always have that fight and hope in each other. We looked at one another in the huddle and were like, “let’s do it.’ One of us hit one and then we were like ‘Alright, let’s get back into this.’ We just came up a little bit short.”
The graduate student buried back-to-back triples before an Atamah 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 70-66 with a minute left before UTRGV’s Jalayah Ingram scored six straight points of her team-high 22 to close out the game. Ingram made all 12 of her free throws in the game.
Atamah, the Player of the Year in the conference, scored 17 points and surpassed the 600-point mark this season, the fifth player in program history to accomplish the feat and first since Beatrice Attura in 2016-17.
“I am beyond proud,” Nimz said. “I think this team and this program, thanks to players like Nya and Vee and the girls in that locker room, have taken NSU to from where we were six years ago to where we are now. It is a different group and a different belief and I no longer think teams are excited to play us.”