Box Score MONROE – Louis Ellis poured in a career-high 19 points, draining six 3-pointers to lead a barrage of 13 treys in 28 tries Thursday night by Northwestern State as the visiting Demons came off a nine-day break and cruised by old rival Louisiana-Monroe 76-63.

The Demons never trailed, with Ellis' first 3 coming 14 seconds in and his second making it 6-0 just under a minute later. NSU moved into a double-digit lead on a Gary Stewart 3-pointer just over five minutes in for a 16-6 advantage and ULM never got closer than five afterward.

It was 45-35 at the half before Northwestern expanded the margin between 15-20 points most of the half, with a high-water mark of 21 points, 73-52, with 5:31 to go. NSU coach Mike McConathy had his team work down the shot clock to the final seconds for the rest of the game.

The Demons (5-5) got 12 points from Stewart and 11 by Shamir Davis while all 12 players dressed out got into the scoring column.

The contest was the first in five years between NSU and ULM, who first played in 1951-52. It was the sixth straight Demons' win in the series and moved Northwestern to 11-3 against the Warhawks in the 13 seasons Mike McConathy has been the NSU head coach.

ULM (1-10) lost its fourth straight while getting 14 points from Fred Brown, 13 by Charles Winborne and 10 points and 9 rebounds from Steven McClelland.

Stewart and Davis each posted career bests with 4 steals apiece as NSU, 19^th nationally with a 9.6  average, had 10 steals at halftime and finished with 12. Davis dished out a game-best six assists.

“We did have really good offensive flow much of the first half, and we came up with a lot of steals,” said McConathy. “Overall it was a good performance coming out of nine days without a game. Gary Stewart had an especially good game in no small part because of how hard he worked on his own to improve since our last game.”

No Demon played more than the 24 minutes by Davis and Stewart and everybody played nine minutes or longer.

“It was nice to be able to distribute the minutes across the roster as we start a busy seven days,” said McConathy.

NSU opened a stretch of four games in seven days, capped by a battle next Thursday with 18^th-ranked Mississippi State in Jackson.

Northwestern comes home for its next two games, Saturday at 2 against Missouri Valley and Monday at 7 against Central Methodist.