By Jonathan Zenk, Northwestern State Assistant Director of Communications; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
HOUSTON—There’s something about playing Houston Christian that always brings out the best in Sharna Ayres.
The graduate student poured in a game-high 20 points to lead Northwestern State (4-7, 1-1) to a 57-51 road victory against HCU (4-7, 1-1) on Sunday afternoon at Sharp Gymnasium.
It is the second consecutive trip to HCU that Ayres scored at least 20 points after dropping in a career-high 24 points in the matchup at Sharp Gymnasium last season and averaged 19.5 points per contest in the two meetings last year.
While Ayres scored 20 to lead the way, freshman Vernell Atamah finished right behind her with 19 of her own on an efficient 6-of-9 shooting, including 6-of-8 from the free throw line.
“Road wins are incredibly hard to come by and I am very proud of the girls efforts,” head coach Anna Nimz said. “I feel that there were so many big plays made by a handful of players, whether it was on offense or defense. Sharna and Vee were not only great on the offensive end but both were great on the boards.
“We absolutely have a lot to learn from this game. We need to grow in our ability to show composure and also take care of the ball. However, we are all thankful to learn from a win vs. a loss.”
The pairing dominated offensively, but the Demons came up huge with mammoth late-game stops. Clinging to a 53-49 lead with less than a minute left, Northwestern State forced a 3-point miss from Tove Caesar and a Hannah Fields turnover before a Fields missed layup to secure the victory.
The Demons held HCU to just 31.3 percent shooting overall and 2-of-18 from deep, while shooting 37.7 from the field, making four 3-pointers.
Northwestern State also held Tiffany Tullis, who averages double digit rebounds, to just seven points and seven rebounds, and her rebound total was at three well into the fourth quarter.
While leading scorer Mya Blake was held to just five points, she contributed elsewhere with six rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block.
Not many sequences was larger than late in the third and early in the fourth, led by Blake.
With less than a minute left in the third, HCU had cut the Demons lead to three when Blake had a spurt in which she had a part in the following nine points.
She recorded her steal and dished it to Atamah for a layup. She followed that up with her lone bucket, a triple from the right wing, to make it 38-30 at the end of the third.
If that wasn’t enough, Blake recorded another assist as well as a pair of free throws to grow the lead to 42-30 a minute and a half into the fourth.
The Demons needed a fast start, which happened in a big way, as the visitors scored the first seven points of the contest and jumped out to a 16-6 lead.
Erin Maguire led the charge for the Huskies offense, scoring 11 points, but Northwestern State forced her to attempt 16 shots for those 11 points.
Kierra Prim tallied 10 points for the lone other Huskies player to reach double figures in scoring.
Northwestern State needed to hang in on the boards against the bigger HCU team, and did just that, out-rebounding the Huskies 41-38. Three Demons hauled down at least seven rebounds, led by Jasmin Dixon’s eight. Ayres and Atamah each collected seven rebounds. Blake, the point guard, even chipped in with six as well.
The Demons return home to Prather Coliseum for a pair of in-state games against McNeese on Thursday and Nicholls on Saturday.