Women’s basketball — Demons fall to Cardinals in home finale

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State played even with conference-leading Lamar through the majority of Saturday’s home finale at Prather Coliseum.

The largest difference came from the free throw line as Lamar (22-5, 16-1) made twice as many shots from the stripe as the Demons (11-17, 7-10), and converted on seemingly ever gifted chance on the way to an 80-64 win.

“They made 28 free throws and scored 18 points off our turnovers,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “Even though we kept our turnover count down that’s a lot of points to try and combat against the best team in the conference.

“Our girls have the ability to play with the best in the conference, they showed that today. They did so many things that I’m really proud of them for doing and had the chance to do even more if we make some of those easy looks. We just have to refocus a bit and get after it on next Wednesday.”

The teams came out trading points around the basket through the first four minutes of the game, each converting on second-chance rebounds at the rim. Near the midpoint of the first Lamar made it’s first run of the game thanks to a pair of long balls.

Back-to-back 3-pointers, the first two of the game to fall for either side, carried an 8-0 run in the span of 90 seconds to give the Cardinals a 14-8 lead. Lamar started the game 5-for-7 from the field over the first six minutes.

A layup from Nia Hardison, one of her three made shots in the quarter, cut the lead back down to three with just over two minutes left in the quarter. Lamar answered with seven points to extend the lead to nine before Hardison close the period with a shot to make it 24-17.

Four straight shots from beyond the arc ripped the net early in the second. Karmelah Dean splashed in back-to-back 3-pointers, but Lamar’s Brooklyn Mitchell and Sabria Dean had a rebuttal each time.

After the initial flurry of 3s the Demon defense found their stride over the stretch of four minutes to hold the Cardinals to a 1-for-7 effort from the field. On her senior day, Karmelah Dean carried the Demons back to within three during that time.

She attacked the basket, knifing through the defense to earn consecutive trips to the free throw line, making all four shots to pull the Demons within one shot at 37-34 with three minutes left in the half. Dean finished the half with 15 points going 4-for-6 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line.

That was as close as NSU got the rest of the way as the Cardinals responded to finish the half going 4-for-5 from the field to stretch the lead to double-digit lead with a 10-2 run and a 47-36 lead after the first 20 minutes.

Lamar shot 50 percent from the field in the first half with the Demons just behind at 46 percent. The largest different came from beyond the arc as Lamar went 6-for-13 from deep with NSU making 3-of-11.

The defenses made life tough through the first five minutes of the second half with both squads combining to go 2-for-16 from the field to open the third. After close to half of the total shots in the first half found their way though the basket, the teams finished the third 5-for-22 from the field, a combined 22 percent rate.

The Cardinals though were able to stretch their lead by three during the period to 62-48 by making 11 free throws in the period compared to five conversions for the Demons.

Lamar finished the game going 28-for-33 from the stripe including a 19-for-22 mark in the second half. It was the most makes and attempts for the Cardinals in a single game this season.

NSU had one more push midway through the fourth quarter cutting the lead down to 10 on a 9-2 stretch that featured the first two career made shots from freshman Ane Astarloa. She took a feed from Dean for a contested layup on the first and scored on a wide-open look after pass from Sharna Ayres on the second.

The Demons trailed 70-60 with just less than five minutes to go but the Cardinals scored 10 of the final 14 points in the game to secure the 80-64 win and outright regular season Southland Conference championship.

Dean finished with a team-leading 19 points and Hardison added 10. Ayres added to her conference-leading 3-point shooting total with three more made shots, with at least three others that somehow did not go in during the game as well. She has converted 69 times from beyond the arc, the most in a single season in the Southland in the past four seasons.