Box Score NATCHITOCHES – The first 10 minutes of Northwestern State's game against Nicholls State seemingly took the tone of the play NSU had at Texas State as the Lady Demons built an 11-point lead, but the Lady Colonel defense strapped in and forced NSU into turnover after turnover and an 83-69 win over the Lady Demons in Southland Conference action.
 
It was just the second win all-time for the Lady Colonels in Prather Coliseum as the vi ctory snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Lady Demons.
 
NSU (4-11, 0-2) led 24-13 with 9:14 to play in the first half and had turned the ball over just twice up to that point as Jordi James, who joined Trudy Armstead to lead the Lady Demons with 19 pointe each, scored NSU's first nine points.  But a string of four consecutive miscues over the next two minutes in addition to two more turnovers the next three minutes helped fuel a 16-0 Nicholls run and a lead it would only lose once more.
 
“The turnovers were the story of the game,” said head coach Jennifer Graf.  “I thought we came out with a lot of energy and did a great job of selecting shots and taking care of the ball.  But then it started to snowball on  us midway through the half.”
 
The Lady Demons came back to regain the lead at 36-35 after Jasmine Upchurch hit one of two free throws with 2:54 to go but the Lady Colonels outscored the Lady Demons 9-2 to end the half and take a 44-38 lead.
 
Armstead added 16 rebounds to get the double-double and came within two blocked shots of a triple-double after she swatted away a career-best eight shots.
 
Ronikka Drake had 14 points for the Lady Demons while Meredith Graf pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds with nine points as NSU sank 23 of 55 for 41.8 percent from the field.
 Sumar Leslie led the Lady Colonels (9-6, 2-0) with 22 points and LiAnn McCarty added 20 while KK Babin and Alisha Allen scored 14 points each.
 
NSU made things interesting early in the second half after a 5-0 run cut a 48-40 deficit to 48-45 with 16:40 to play.  It all started on a traditional 3-point play by Upchurch and then two free throws from Drake.
 
Nicholls turned up the defense once again and after a trey by Babin and three more points off of two Lady Demon turnovers, the Lady Colonels went up 54-45 with 14:39 to play.
 
Drake hit two free throws and Armstead hit a layup to cut the deficit to 58-51 at the 11:41 mark before the Lady Colonels grabbed their largest at 65-53 after a 3-point basket by McCarty with 10:03 to go. 
 
NSU got the lead back to under double-digits after two free throws by James with 6:55 to play and had a couple of chances to get closer, but Drake missed the front end of a one-and-one then turned the ball over off a defensive rebound that led to two free throws and a 3-point bucket after another turnover.  That put Nicholls up 74-61 with 4:45 to play and the Lady Demons never got the deficit under double-digits again.
  Northwestern turned the ball over 25 times in the contest that led to 28 Nicholls points.  NSU also struggled from 3-point range and hit just 2 of 11 for 18.2 percent.
 
The Lady Demons will return to action on Saturday when they visit Central Arkansas, a loser to Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday.