Balanced Demons complete season sweep of HCU

HOUSTON – There was almost no letting up in the Northwestern State men’s basketball team this time.

The Demons put together a nearly complete 40 minutes of basketball inside Sharp Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, rolling to an 86-73 Southland Conference victory that clinched a season sweep of host Houston Christian.

“I was very proud of our guys for the first 35 minutes,” first-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. “Those last five minutes are never considered garbage time in my book. On the defensive end, we didn’t play hard enough (at the end), and I’m not happy about that. I am happy we got the road win, which is always hard. Being up 30 with four minutes to go and them cutting it to 13 is never good, but we’ll get better. At the end of the day we got the win we wanted and we needed.”

Unlike the Jan. 15 meeting between the teams in which the Huskies nearly erased a 20-point, second-half deficit, Northwestern State (9-19, 7-8) continued to build on its lead throughout, pushing ahead by 35 points with 3:42 to play.

That lead gave the Demons enough cushion to withstand a 22-point closing surge from HCU (6-19, 4-10).

While the finish may have dimmed some of the shine, the first 35 minutes of the game spotlighted the Demons individual and collective balance.

Braelon Bush did the heavy lifting in the early going, scoring 15 of his career-high 19 points in the first 20 minutes, sinking 3 of 4 3-pointers in the half. Behind his lead, the Demons shot 64.3 percent from the field and took a 14-point lead into the locker room.

“I came out with confidence,” Bush said. “My teammates were passing up shots to get me going after I made my first. Once we got rolling, everyone was sharing the ball. When we share the ball, the basketball gods reward us. We were having fun, making the right plays.”

While Northwestern State was rolling offensively, it was playing tough defense in the first half and taking care of the glass.

NSU limited HCU to 38.5 percent shooting in the half and had a plus-one rebounding margin at the break. While the Huskies’ late surge allowed them to shoot above 40 percent, the Demons won the battle of the boards by four.

“I always tell them you have to be great defensively and rebound the ball in any game, especially on the road,” Cabrera said. “On the offensive end, we did a heck of job executing our offense, getting the ball to the right person at the right time, sharing the basketball. When we don’t have to rely on one guy to score – Jae Slack played well, Cliff (Davis) played well, Chase (Forte) played well, Justo (Justin Wilson) played well , D.P. (Duane Posey) played well – then we are the best team when we have a balance of guys scoring.

“I forgot initially to mention Braelon, which shows you how many guys played well. Braelon set the tone in the first half, but when we have balance and defend, we can beat anyone in the league.”

Bush’s hot-shooting first half gave way to an even more egalitarian approach in the second half where Slack had all nine of his points in a 2:22 stretch of the second half, helping the Demons build a 24-point lead less than six minutes into the half.

“I feel like for me and the team, it’s big,” Slack said. “We needed a little extra push to get us going. We started out slow. Right now, we’re turning everything around.”

The Demons put four players – Bush, Davis (15), Posey (11) and Forte (10) – in double figures while Slack and Justin Wilson each had nine. Wilson and Slack combined for 12 rebounds and each had three steals in the win.

Marcus Greene paced the Huskies with 19 points.

The Demons return to action in one week, hosting Lamar in the first game of NSU’s final homestand of the season. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. inside Prather Coliseum.