By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – One week ago, the Northwestern State men’s basketball team was riding high of a second-half comeback road victory.
Monday night, the reverse happened to the Demons on Mike McConathy Court at Prather Coliseum.
Lamar rode a dead-eye shooting performance from long range to a 75-65 Southland Conference victory against the Demons, completing a two-game season sweep.
“As of right now, we’re not a very good basketball team,” second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. “In conference basketball, it’s week to week and day to day. This time last week, we were celebrating a good road win at Nicholls. Then you lose two home games – which is never acceptable. I’m not happy with how we’re defending. There’s no way to sugarcoat it.”
Lamar (17-10, 12-4) knocked down eight of 10 3-pointers in the second half, including its first five long-range attempts to repeat what happened Jan. 27 in Beaumont, Texas, in the first meeting between the teams.
That night, the Cardinals erased a five-point halftime deficit. It was a six-point lead for the Demons (11-15, 8-8) at the break Monday night.
“Two times, we’ve taken a lead at half against this team, and they start the second half on an 8-0 run,” Cabrera said. “To me, it’s like the game’s over at that point. That’s the same thing that happened down there, and it’s because of our lack of defense. I’m going to fix that. That’s not acceptable. It’s bad basketball.”
After holding the Cardinals to 33.3-percent shooting in the first half, Northwestern saw Lamar sink 15 of 25 shots (60 percent) in the second half.
Conversely, it was the Demons who came out with vim and vigor.
Northwestern zipped to a 13-3 lead, moving the ball crisply and finding open layups. The Demons hit five of their first eight shots, including their first four 2-point attempts.
Pushing the Northwestern lead at the half was Willie Williams, who tallied a career-high 13 points in the first 20 minutes as the Demons scored 24 points in the paint in the first half.
Emblematic of the change in halves, Williams managed just one bucket and two shot attempts in the second half as Northwestern saw its shooting percentage fall from 55.6 to 41.7.
“We came out on fire,” Cabrera said. “We guarded, and then they went on like a 16-2 run and – as bad as that stretch was – we still found a way to bounce back and take the lead.”
Once Andrew Holifield (5-for-6) began Lamar’s 3-point barrage, the lead creeped every upward, reaching a game-high 15 points with 2:56 to play.
The Demons mostly stayed within striking range, twice pulling within six with less than 10 minutes to play before the Cardinals turned to their defense to seal their eighth win in the past nine games.
Once Love Bettis’ jumper made it a 59-53 game with 8:18 to play, Lamar held the Demons without a field goal until Addison Patterson’s layup with 44 seconds to play.
“We can’t be a Jekyll and Hyde team if we want to win the conference tournament,” Cabrera said. “We’re going to fix that. You’ll see a different team come Saturday.”
Micah Thomas led Northwestern with 16 points as he, Williams and Patterson (14) combined for 45 on the night. Holifield’s hot shooting night led him to a game-high 22 points while Alexis Marmolejos and Danquez Dawsey each had 13 for the Cardinals.
The Demons return to action Saturday at New Orleans. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. at Lakefront Arena.