By Jonathan Zenk, Northwestern State Assistant Director of Communications; featured photo by Hunter Overholt, SFA Athletics
NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Mya Blake dropped a career-high 37 points, but the Northwestern State women’s basketball team fell in 67-65 in a hard-fought contest Saturday afternoon at the William R. Johnson Coliseum.
Blake scored 24 of her 37 in the second half, but the Demons (8-9, 5-3) could not hold a late lead.
Blake’s 37 points are the most by a Demon since Angela Simpson dropped in 45 in a Southland Conference Tournament game against Texas State on March 7, 1996.
Her point total is also the most points scored in the Southland Conference this season.
“I felt that our girls deserved to win tonight,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “I’m really proud of them. Mya was absolutely tremendous. She always is. She is a winner. Our defense was fantastic. I’m proud of the defensive effort tonight. This group is special.”
Northwestern State led 58-53 with three minutes to play following Nia Hardison’s only bucket of the game before an 8-0 run with four coming on one possession following a technical foul.
SFA (15-5, 5-4) never relinquished the lead from there and Faith Blackstone scored nine of her 17 points in the final quarter, including a tough basket to put the Ladyjacks up 65-62 with 23 seconds left.
A stop and a pair of free throws from Avery Vansickle sealed the SFA victory. Blake finished the game with a triple with less than a second left to cut it to two.
While the Ladyjacks thrive on making the 3-pointer, they made 5-of-7 from inside the arc in the fourth as well as 13-of-16 from the free throw line after going 4-of-13 from the charity stripe in the first three periods.
SFA outscored Northwestern State 23-18 in the final period after the Demons held a slim advantage through the first three quarters.
The 44 points through the first three periods are fewest points scored this season and the 67 overall points are the fewest since also scoring 67 in a 67-60 victory over UIW on Jan. 4.
The Demons fell behind by as many as 17 points in the first half, starting the game shooting just 3-of-20 from the floor, but finished the half making seven of their final 12 shots to climb back into the game, outscoring SFA 18-7 in the final seven and a half minutes.
Blake scored nine points during that run to lead the comeback.
The Demons defense was stifling, holding a team averaging 80 points per game to just 67 and a great shooting team to just 36.7 percent shooting overall and 26.1 percent from deep.
It is the first time an opponent has held SFA below 40 percent shooting all season.
In addition to Blake’s 37, Vernell Atamah scored 16. Sharna Ayres made two 3-pointers, which pushed her into seventh place in Demons history in career made triples.
Trinity Moore led the Ladyjacks with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting and Ashlyn Traylor-Walker nearly posted a double-double, recording 12 points and nine rebounds.
Northwestern State wraps up the road weekend with a trip to Lamar on Monday evening before coming back to Natchitoches to host UTRGV on Thursday.