By Jonathan Zenk, Northwestern State Assistant Director of Communications; featured photo courtesy of North Texas Athletics
DENTON, Texas—In a back-and-forth affair, the Northwestern State women’s basketball team came up one basket short in its upset bid against North Texas, falling 62-59, on Wednesday at The Super Pit.
The Demons (2-4) had a chance to tie the game late, but a Mya Blake 3-pointer was off the mark and the Mean Green held on.
With 15 seconds left, Northwestern State trailed by one point after a stop, but a turnover gave the ball back to the Mean Green, who buried two free throws before the Demons final shot was missed.
Despite the miss at the buzzer, Blake kept the Demons in the game. The senior scored 14 of her game-high 18 in the final period. Those 14 points happened to the final 14 points recorded by the Demons in the contest.
The Demons fell in all three during the Texas road trip but played right with all three opponents into the second half and in this case, down to the wire.
“I could not be more proud of the effort and execution demonstrated tonight by this group,” head coach Anna Nimz said. We had a couple possessions not go our way late, but this team was incredible.
“We are leaving Texas without a win, but we absolutely have grown and gotten better from game one to game three.”
Nearly the entire second half was played within one possession, but five free throws made in the fourth by the Mean Green compared to none for the Demons was a factor in a three-point defeat.
While the game came down to the wire, the Mean Green jumped out to a fast start in the opening quarter and a half.
The Mean Green made nine of 15 shots in the first quarter with seven different players entering the scoring column in the first 10 minutes. Northwestern State made just four of its first 12 shots, which saw the Demons fall behind 22-12 before a Zhane Thompson 3-pointer ended the first quarter.
Northwestern State put the clamps on North Texas in the second quarter to climb back in the game, holding the hosts to just 3-of-15 shooting in the period and no baskets in the final 4:24 to cut a seven-point deficit to a single point at halftime.
Making her return trip to the Metroplex, Mesquite native Vernell Atamah scored 10 of her 16 points to lead the comeback, eight of which came in a row for the Demons.
With Northwestern State trailing 30-23, Atamah drilled back-to-back triples to quickly cut the deficit to one point.
Atamah, a freshman, reached double figures for the third consecutive game.
After a pair of UNT free throws from Jaaucklyn Moore made it 32-29, another Metroplex product made a tough bucket right before half to cut it back to one.
Payton Miller, a native of St. Paul, Texas, made a difficult leaner for her only bucket of the game right before the half.
Blake and Atamah were joined in double figures in scoring by Sharna Ayres with 12, tying a season high with three made 3-pointers.
Demons connected on nine more triples, shooting 42.9 percent from deep. The team has made 56 shots from deep through six games this season. It took until game 11 to make that many 3-pointers last season.
After a bit of a slow start from deep in the first two games, the Demons have made 37.1 percent (39-for-105) in their past four contests.
Atamah and Blake combined to make all seven free throw attempts. In the past two games, the Demons made 14 of 16 shots from the charity stripe.
Tommisha Lampkin led the Mean Green with 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, making 7-of-13 shots from the field.
The Demons come back home for one game against Southern-New Orleans on Tuesday before taking a break and coming back for the Southland Conference opener at UIW.