Lady Demons hang tough before falling to No. 8 Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – Short-handed because of injuries and outmanned against the No. 8 team in the nation,
the Northwestern State women’s basketball team needed to stick to its plan.

By slowing the game down to a much slower than its preferred pace, the Lady Demons were able to hold Texas to its lowest scoring output of the season, falling to the nationally ranked Longhorns, 68-44, on Wednesday night.

“There were a lot of good things we did,” second-year head coach Jordan Dupuy said. “Going into the game, we wanted to make sure our zone was effective in slowing them down. We saw on film where they are not nearly as aggressive against a zone as they are against man. We also knew how hard it was to guard them man-to-man.”

Despite dropping their second straight game, the Lady Demons (4-5) held Texas (8-1) to 22 points fewer than its season average. The Longhorns entered the game averaging 90.8 points per game, fourth in the nation.

On the offensive end, Northwestern State broke the 40-point barrier for the first time in the past three games at Texas and the 24-point margin of defeat was the smallest in the six-game series, which began in 2010 and has been played five straight seasons.

Jha’ne Wheeler delivered a career-high 15 points, including four 3-pointers, for the Lady Demons, equaling Texas’ Jatarie White for game-high scoring honors.

“Jha’ne, going from playing four minutes this past Saturday against Texas Southern to stepping out here and scoring 15 points off the bench, she did some good things,” said Dupuy, whose team was missing starting guard Jasmyn Johnson and freshman guard Jada Freeman because of injuries.

“Jocelyn Scott, before tomorrow, wasn’t starting in the game. We had a player go down in practice. She had to step in, and she did some good things.”

Wheeler gave the Lady Demons a massive lift in the second quarter.

After NSU managed just four points in the opening 10 minutes, Wheeler connected on three 3-pointers in the second quarter, scoring 11 of NSU’s 16 points in the quarter.

That total was one off her previous career high, which she set against LeTourneau on Nov. 12.

While Northwestern State was able to control the tempo for much of the game, Texas showed its quick-strike capability in an eight-minute span that crossed halftime.

After taking a 20-point lead into halftime, the Longhorns scored the first 11 points of the second half before Wheeler snapped the drought with a 3-pointer at the 5:33 mark of the third quarter.

That cut the Texas lead to 28 and set in motion a 15-minute span in which the Lady Demons outscored the Longhorns, 24-17.

Nautica Grant scored all 10 of her points in the second quarter, giving NSU a pair of double-figure scorers against a Power Five conference opponent for the second time in three games this season.

“There’s still a lot of room to grow,” Dupuy said. “What these games do, when you play at Texas and you perform well, it shouldn’t bother you to go places in your conference and be intimidated. It’s definitely something we can grow from, and I’m proud of the way our ladies represented our program.”

The Lady Demons continue their run through the Big 12 Conference on Sunday when they head to Fort Worth, Texas, to face TCU. Tipoff for that game is set for 2 p.m.