By Jonathon Zend, Northwestern State Assistant Director of Communications; featured photo courtesy of the Southland Conference
LAKE CHARLES—In the biggest games, your big players need to step up—and the big three for the Northwestern State women’s basketball team showed up in a big way.
The trio of Mya Blake, Vernell Atamah and Sharna Ayres combined for 57 points, as the No. 5 Demons (16-14, 12-8) held on for a 66-63 victory over No. 6 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (15-17, 7-13) on Monday afternoon at the Legacy Center in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament.
It is the first conference tournament victory for the Northwestern State women since 2015.
The win sets up a rematch with No. 4 UIW on Tuesday, which won both contests against Northwestern State this season. First tip for that game is also 11 a.m.
“Talk about resilience,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “All I know is they fought for 40 minutes and knocked off an incredibly good Corpus team, the reigning champs of this tournament. I am incredibly pleased with them and it is a good taste to get that first game out of the way and I am just proud of them.”
With the Demons clinging to the three-point lead with less than two seconds remaining, Blake missed both free throws but hustled in between a group of Islanders rebounders to grab the ball for the game-clinching offensive rebound, one of 15 for the Demons.
Blake scored 18 points, but the offensive rebound proved to be her biggest play of the day.
That rebound epitomized the effort put forth by the Demons, as they dominated the glass, winning the rebounding battle 49-32.
The offensive rebound put an end to a furious rally by AMCC, one in which the No. 8 seed made four consecutive 3-pointers in the final minute to cut a 10-point Demons lead down to three.
AMCC scored all nine of its second chance points came in the fourth quarter, leading to three triples, which kept the Islanders in the game.
Paige Allen connected on all three of her 3-pointers in the fourth, scoring 11 of her team-high 19 points,
The game was kept a bit ajar late, as Northwestern State split on three consecutive trips to the free throw line.
Sharna Ayres did not want to see her career wrap up, as the graduate student buried six 3-pointers amidst a game-high 21 points. Her six deep balls put her at 201 made triples throughout her Northwestern State career, the fourth Demons’ women’s player to reach 200 made 3-pointers.
In addition to her six, Northwestern State made nine 3-pointers as a team, giving the Demons 209 made triples on the season, just three shy of tying the school record for made 3-pointers in a season.
Ayres buried four 3-pointers in the second half to give the Demons some much-needed breathing space, all of which came in crucial moments.
“Not only Sharna’s shot making, but her leadership, was important,” Nimz said. “She’s used to taking tough shots and she hit some very big shots and it is pretty impressive since she hasn’t practiced in the last 48 hours coming off a pretty tough ankle sprain and it is a testament to how bad she wanted it for the team and the program. I am very proud of her—not just offensively, but defensively as well.”
Her final two put distance between the Demons and Islanders, burying a pair of triples in a span of four possessions to push the lead to 10 points at 50-40.
She also made a 3-pointer to end the third quarter to push the advantage to 44-39 after three quarters, so Ayres went on a personal 9-1 run to give the Demons control.
Early in the second half, AMCC scored four straight points to tie the score at 28 and Northwestern State’s best perimeter guard Nia Hardison had to be helped off the floor.
The team played for Hardison, who did not return, as Ayres buried her first triple of the second half on the following offensive trip and Northwestern State never relinquished the lead the rest of the way.
“You saw it on their faces,” Nimz said. “I think it went from winning it personally to winning it for Nia. She guards the No. 1 on every person’s team and is a big heartbeat in our program. Obviously, we hate to lose her, but even on the bench on crutches, she made us tougher. The girls fought for her and fought to the very final stretch.”
Carla Celaya scored two points in the game, but they came in a big spot, as her tip-in snapped a three-minute scoring drought and gave the Demons a five-point lead late in the third.
The game finished the way the Demons wanted, and it didn’t start too bad either, as Northwestern State used a 9-2 run to close the first quarter to take a 21-11 lead after 10 minutes.
Those 21 points were more than Northwestern State put up in the first three quarters in the earlier matchup in Corpus Christi (19).
SLC Freshman of the Year Vernell Atamah made sure the Demons started fast, scoring eight of her 18 in the first seven minutes, nearly our-scoring the Islanders by herself in the opening frame.
AMCC fought back in the second, holding Northwestern State to just 2-for-14 shooting, allowing the Islanders to out-score the Demons 13-5 and cut it to 26-24 at halftime, a far cry from the 9-8 halftime score from January.
Overall, the Demons shot 37.7 percent from the field but shot 46.2 from the field and 42.9 percent from deep outside of the second quarter.
Outside of the big three and Celaya, the only other Demon to find the scoring column was graduate student Jasmin Dixon, who scored seven points on 3-of-4 shooting in addition to grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.
Mireia Aguado scored 12 points, but the Demons defense held her to just 2-of-10 shooting from the field.
Northwestern State’s contest Tuesday against No. 4 seed UIW can also be viewed on ESPN+ at 11 a.m.