By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – When the calendar turns to March, guard play grows in importance.
The Northwestern State men’s basketball backcourt took that to heart Monday night in the Demons’ regular-season finale.
The trio of Jon Sanders II, Micah Thomas and Love Bettis delivered on both ends of the floor, setting the tone throughout a 73-57 victory against Incarnate Word on Mike McConathy Court at Prather Coliseum.
“My team picked the right time to play two halves really well,” second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. “I’m proud of them. They guarded their tails off. They took good shots. They shared the ball. This three-headed monster of guards are the best in the league, and they stayed the course. I’m so proud of them. We have momentum going into the tournament, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Northwestern’s fourth straight win – a season high – put the Demons in position to earn a first-round bye in the Southland Conference Tournament, which begins Sunday in Lake Charles.
A defensive effort that saw Northwestern (15-15, 12-8) collect 12 steals – its highest total against a Division I team this season – and a last-second UTRGV win against Southeastern Louisiana sealed the No. 4 seed for the Demons.
Northwestern will open Southland tournament play against the winner of No. 5 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 8 seed Houston Christian at 5 p.m. Monday inside the Legacy Center in Lake Charles.
“I told them in the locker room, ‘We don’t have to win four. Now we have to win three,’” Cabrera said. “When they heard that three, I could see in their eyes they could see it’s really close. They know we can beat anybody that’s in front of us.”
Sanders followed up strong closing performance in Saturday’s comeback victory against HCU with an 11-point first-half flurry. His go-ahead three-point play with 4:34 to play in the half ignited a 14-2 run to close the half.
The three-point play gave the Demons the lead for good. After not scoring in double figures since Feb. 1, Sanders averaged 14 points per game in Northwestern’s home sweep of HCU and UIW.
On a day where five Demons produced double-figure plus-minus marks, no one’s was better than Sanders’ plus-24.
“I’m just doing what the team needs me to do to win,” he said. “Getting closer to March, it’s all about focus and preparation and coming into every game locked in.”
A locked-in Demon defense stifled UIW (16-15, 9-11) throughout, holding the Cardinals to 35.6-percent shooting overall and forcing 19 turnovers.
Bettis had five of the Demons’ 12 steals while contributing 12 points, embodying what his coach asked for on Senior Night.
“Tonight, Coach told us 40 minutes of chaos,” Bettis said. “Defense gets us going. Getting rebounds and stops lets us work in transition. We know that as long as we lock in on defense, everything will follow.”
When the Cardinals did get inside, the Southland Conference’s leading shot blocker has his teammates’ collective back.
Jerald Colonel swatted five shots – his seventh game this season with at least four rejections – to go along with a team-high six rebounds and three assists in 26 turnover-free minutes.
“If somebody does get by me, I know I don’t have to foul because Jerald’s going to clean it up every time,” Bettis said.
The Demons’ 11-point halftime lead dipped into single figures only twice in the second half. Each time, it was one of the Demons’ three-headed monster who had the answer.
After a pair of T.J. Ford Jr. free throws with 10:11 remaining cut the lead to nine, Sanders knocked down a 3-pointer off a Landyn Jumawan feed to push the lead back to 12.
It took approximately four more minutes for UIW to drop the lead under 10 again, doing so at the 6:16 mark. Nine seconds later, Thomas buried another 3 to give Northwestern a double-figure lead it would not relinquish.
The bucket was part of a 3-for-3 night form 3-point range for Thomas, who finished with a game-high 19 points. During the Demons’ four-game win streak, Thomas has averaged 18.3 points per game and shot 14 for 23 (60.9 percent) from 3-point range.
Thirty games into the season, Thomas and his fellow first-year Demon guards have found their groove – individually and collectively.
“Coming in as transfers, it’s hard to figure out how to play together,” Thomas said. “We had to find continuity. Once we did, I feel we’ve been the best three guards in the league.”