Box Score NATCHITOCHES – Hot second half shooting by Lamar coupled with cold shooting by Northwestern State was the difference in Wednesday night's Southland Conference women's basketball tilt as the Lady Cardinals downed NSU 82-61 to hand the Lady Demons their sixth consecutive loss.
 
The loss dropped NSU to 5-18 overall and 1-9 in league play and hampered the Lady Demons' quest for the postseason conference tournament.  Meanwhile Lamar (12-11 overall) moved to 4-5 in the league and swept the season series from the Lady Demons but more importantly, wrapped up the tiebreaker over NSU should one come into play.
 
Kalis Loyd led the Lamar scoring attack with 24 points followed by Taylor Hays with 18 and Monique Whittaker with 12 as the Lady Cardinals knocked down 61.5 percent of their shots in the second half.
 
Jasmine Upchurch led NSU with 14 points and nine rebounds and Ronikka Drake added 11 points.  For the game, NSU hit just 31.3 percent (20 of 64) from the field, including 7 of 28 for 25 percent in the second half.
 
“We knew coming in they were going to come out and be the aggressor and attempt to push us out of the lane,” said head coach Jennifer Graf.  “We could never get down the floor to set up good shots.  They kept pressing us up and making us put up contested shots and we weren't doing the same to them, and to me, that was the difference in the game.”
 
The Lady Demons also turned the ball over 23 times that led to 27 Lamar points.
 
Lamar led 35-29 at the half but saw an early 18-4 lead dissolve to 26-25 with 2:27 to play after the Lady Demons went on a 21-8 spurt that started on a 3-pointer by Tiandra Williams.  Upchurch hit a jumper to make it 26-25 and then the Lady Demons forced a turnover to gain possession with a chance to take the lead, but turned the ball over in return and Lamar outscored the Lady Demons 9-4 to close out the half.
 
A 3-pointer by Meredith Graf opened the scoring in the second half and cut the Lamar lead to 25-32.  That would be the last points NSU would get for the next four minutes as the Lady Cardinals scored nine straight to open up a 44-32 lead with 15:57 to play.
 
Loyd gave Lamar its largest lead of the game at 65-44 after back-to-back steals and fast break layups with 8:01 to play but the Lady Demons continued to battle back and scored seven straight, four of those by Jordi James at the free throw line, to cut the deficit to 65-51 with 6:19 to play.
 
Lamar then went on a 14-5 run over the next four minutes to go up 79-56 and put the game away.
 
“The last 10 minutes of the game, we got worn down and lost our focus,” said Graf.
 
Wednesday's loss was just the second time in the conference season where the Lady Demons lost by 20 or more as three of the losses have been by two points and a total of six losses by 10 or less.
 
“We're just going to keep working hard and fighting,” said Graf.  “We're still taking it one game at a time.  We're going to go into Saturday's game completely focused for that game.”
 
The Lady Demons will host Southeastern Louisiana at 2 on Saturday in Prather Coliseum.