Lady Demons cruise to SLC-opening win against McNeese

NATCHITOCHES – Behind one of the most complete team efforts of the season Northwestern State began Southland Conference play with a convincing 78-54 win over McNeese on Thursday night.

The Demons (5-7, 1-0) shot 50 percent from the field and had five players reach double figures on the night all while holding the SLC’s top scoring offense to just 54 total points and their fourth lowest shooting percentage of the season.

The win marks the first time since the 2015-16 that NSU won its Southland opening game.

“Super proud of the girls,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “I thought they played a really nice game on both ends of the court. They stayed locked into their scout. They came out, shot well and with confidence and have had two weeks of really good practice leading up to tonight. You could feel the energy in shootaround and in the locker room before the game and they got after it all night.”

NSU jumped ahead seconds after the opening tip when Jiselle Woodson stroked a 3-pointer on the game’s opening shot, setting the tone for the fast start. Two more triples, coming on back-to-back possessions from Sharna Ayres gave the Demons an early 9-2 lead forcing a quick McNeese timeout.

“I think it was a big momentum boost for us right out of the gate,” Woodson said. “Karmelah (Dean) found me on that one and I know she has confidence in me. Having that confidence is what we need. All of us having confidence in each other. As long as we have that we’re solid.”

After going up by nine on a Jenny Ntambwe layup, the Cowgirls connected on consecutive triples of their own to pull within a single point at 15-14 with just over two minutes left in the quarter.

But it was the final two minutes of each of the four quarters that were absolutely dominated by the Demons. NSU went on matching 6-0 runs to close both the first and second quarters, had a 7-1 run to close the third and with the game already in hand, allowed just one field goal during that stretch of the fourth.

During those critical two-minute stretches of the game, NSU outscored McNeese 25-5, allowing just one point total in the final two minutes of the first, second and third quarters.

“Holding anyone to 54 points is incredible no matter who it is,” Nimz said. “That alone is going to give us the chance to win some games if we can lock in defensively. We’ve got some areas that we had lapses on, but collectively we did a really nice job with our scout defense. When challenged they rose to the occasion, and it was a great defensive effort.”

It was another triple from Ayres, part of her game-high 16 points on the night, and a corner 3 from Nia Hardison that accounted for the six points to finish the second quarter. Their consecutive triples were part of a larger 18-3 stretch that spanned the second and third quarters putting NSU up 51-26 by the media timeout of the third after a Karmelah Dean jumper.

She was one of five players to score in double figures on the night doing the bulk of her damage from the mid-range while Ayres and Woodson connected on six of the eight total deep shots in the game for the Demons.

Ayres dropped in her fourth 3 of the game with 2:12 left in the third, starting the 7-1 run to close the period that gave the Demons the 59-35 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“This is conference and we have to show up ready to go,” she said. “My shots in the last game weren’t really falling and I’ve kept working throughout practices to just keep that shooting confidence. That’s really everything for me, having that confidence and in conference you have to show up.”

The Demons had their second highest team shooting percentage of the season in the win and went 8-for-17 (.471) from behind the arc in the game, their best 3-point shooting percentage this year.