Box Score

SAN MARCOS, Texas – India Johnson banked in a short jumper with 10.3 seconds remaining as Texas State held off a gritty Northwestern State Lady Demon rally in a 70-68 win in the Southland Conference opener for both team.

The Lady Demons (4-10, 0-1), who played the final 11 minutes of the game with three players with four fouls and another, Meredith Graf, on a sprained ankle she suffered earlier in the second half, trailed by their largest deficit at 55-43 with 11:39 to play then mounted one of the most memorable rallies in recent memory to take a 68-67 lead with 1:09 to go after Tiandra Williams hit one of two free throws.

“There's no doubt we fought and scrapped,” said head coach Jennifer Graf.  “I don't remember a game this year where we've been down by as much as we've had in the second half and scrapped our way back into it.

“I couldn't ask for anything more.  We stayed focus on what we needed to do.  If we have that effort in every one of our conference games, we're going to be successful.”

Texas State (9-5, 1-0) got the putback from Johnson after leading scorer Diamond Ford missed on running jumper, and Jasmine Baugus knocked down the first of two free throws with 1.3 seconds remaining.  NSU's Jordi James' three-quarter court heave at the buzzer fell well short.

Three Lady Demon players scored in double-figures with James leading the way with 21 points to go along with 11 rebounds.  Jasmine Upchurch added 18 points and nine boards while Trudy Armstead added 16 points and eight rebounds.

NSU could've put the game away in the final 1:09 but three different Lady Demon players missed three front ends of 1-and-1s which led to the Bobcats' winning score with 10.3 to play.

“Meredith Graf is a heck of a kid with the biggest heart I've ever seen.  She tore her ankle up when she went down, but when I went down there to check on her, she looked up at me and said 'give me five minutes coach and I'll be ready to go'.  If I don't have that from her, we're down to four players.”

Ford led all scorers with 27 points while Ashley Ezeh added 20 as those were the only two Bobcat players to score in double figures.

NSU trailed 40-32 at the half after Texas State went on a 5-2 run to end the half.

The Lady Demons kept the Bobcats out of the net for the first four minutes of the second half but was only able to get to within five points.  Then Texas State went on a run to take its largest lead at 12 points with 11:39 to play before the Lady Demons went on a 24-10 run over the next nine minutes to give themselves a chance at the win.

Ronikka Drake got the run going with the first 3-pointer of the game for the Lady Demons.  That was followed by a layup by Upchurch and another trey, this time by Aurianne Ausmer, to cut the lead to 55-51 with 10:19 to play.

After a Texas State basket, Armstead sank a turnaround jumper that was followed by two free throws by Upchurch and two more from James to tie the game at 57-all with 9:08 to play.

NSU took its first lead of the game on a James layup with 3:04 to play to make it 67-65, then led 68-67 after Williams hit the first of two free thorws.

“I'm very proud of our effort,” said Graf.  “But now we've got to get back into the gym and get ready for Nicholls.”

The Lady Demons will be back in action on Wednesday when they open their home Southland slate against Nicholls State at 7 p.m. in Prather Coliseum.