Box Score BATON ROUGE – Less than 24 hours after downing Auburn in its arena, a lack offensive production in the first half and missed free throws throughout the game gave Northwestern State an 88-74 loss at LSU Saturday night in the Maravich Center.
 
 NSU (2-1) traveled to Auburn and beat the Tigers 111-92 on Friday, and the finished the two games in two night road trip on Saturday against LSU (1-1).
 
The Demons were 13-of-41 (31.7-percent) in the first half and had 31 points, nine less than the Tigers' 40.  From the free throw line, the Demons were 6-of-14 (42.9) from the charity stripe.
 
NSU went into the game nearly 86-pecent  (55-64) from the free throw line. LSU was 16-for-26 at the line for the game.
 
"I don't think there is any doubt that in the first half we weren't aggressive enough and we didn't to the little things that were necessary," said 15-year Demon head coach Mike McConathy.
 
We lost a lot of points; in the first half  when we went out 31-percent (field goal), nine-percent (3-point field goal), and 42-pecent (free throw)," he said.  "I'm not going to blame it on the fact that we went to three states and played two [Southeastern Conference] teams in two nights."
 
NSU hit 50-percent from the field with 18 makes in 36 attempts in the second half.  It was 5-of-11 from behind the arc.
 
"I feel like we made a gallant effort in the second half and fought to come back," said McConathy. "They got at us and we came back and cut it to four, then they got out again and we cut it to ten, but we just never could get over the hump."
 
LSU jumped out to a big lead early when Johnny O'Bryant hit a jumper at the 11:31 mark in the first half to put the Tigers up 26-14. That was the largest lead they would have in the opening half.
 
The Tigers would match their 12-point lead with 15:58 to play, but NSU put together an 12-4 run midway through the second to cut it to four with 11:34 to go in the game.
 
During that run Jalan West and Zikiteran Woodley each had four points and Gary Stewart and  Brison White both had two.
 
Eventually the Tigers would get back to a 19-point deficit with just under six to play sparked by seven points from Andre Stringer and six from Anthony Hickey.  Northwestern State continued to fight by getting the lead to 10, twice, at the 3:50 and 3:05 marks.
 
The Demons were outrebounded by 24 (64-40) and gave up 32 second-chance points.
 
O'Bryant and Stringer led all scorers with 21 points each, and O'Bryant finished the double-double with 14 points.
 
NSU was led in scoring by Brison White who has 17 points and tied a career-high in rebounds of seven.  He had seven a night on Friday in Auburn.
 
"I thought Brison White was phenomenal," said McConathy. "I though Marvin Frazier hit some big shots as well as Tyler Washington."
 
Frazier and Washington each had six points; both had two 3-pointers.
 
DeQuan Hicks was the second-leading scorer with 16 points and leading rebounder with 11.
 
"I thought DeQuan did some good things, and sometimes he got a little carried away with himself," said McConathy.  "He had five steals in the game and had six turnovers, but he's just trying to make a play."