AUSTIN, Texas – For much of the first quarter Wednesday night, the Northwestern State women's basketball team stood toe-to-toe with No. 14 Texas.
 
In the final 3:19 of the opening quarter and the first eight-plus minutes of the second quarter, the Longhorns took control with a dominant stretch that turned a four-point game into what became an 86-39 Texas victory.
 
"It was a tough night for us," first-year coach Jordan Dupuy said. "We had a good game plan going in. There were times the game plan was executed. When we weren't slowing our double teams on the post, we created deflections. When we weren't tentative and attacked their defense, we got in the paint and kicked it out for shots. We just have to learn to be more consistent in our execution and believe in it more. When we finally did that, you look at the fourth quarter, we played them even. That's something I want to build off of."
 
The Lady Demons (3-1) stayed within two possessions of the Longhorns for the majority of the first seven minutes of the first quarter. Beatrice Attura's 3-pointer with 3:19 to play in the opening quarter brought Northwestern State within 13-9 before Texas (2-2) scored four points in 57 seconds forcing an NSU timeout.
 
The Longhorns finished the quarter on an 8-0 run before scoring the first 22 points of the second quarter, building a 43-9 lead before Shahd Abboud crossed the lane and hit a layup to snap an 11:32 scoreless stretch for Northwestern State.
 
Attura, who averaged 11.7 points per game in her first three career games at Texas, followed Abboud's bucket with her third 3 of the half, finishing the first half with nine points. Attura's fourth 3 of the game came in the fourth quarter and helped her post the third double-figure scoring game of her career against the Longhorns.
 
Attura dropped in a game-high 15 points and fellow senior Shahd Abboud added 13, including a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers that helped the Lady Demons tally 15 points in the final 10 minutes.
 
"They were still pressing in the fourth quarter, and we handled it," Dupuy said. "They changed defenses, and we did a decent job. At that point, the game is out of hand. If we do that and carry it through all four quarters, who knows what can happen?"
 
Six Longhorns reached double figures, led by Lashann Higgs' 14 points. Joyner Holmes and Kelsey Lang each had 12 while Ariel Atkins added 11 and Brooke McCarty and Jada Underwood chipped in 10 apiece. Texas, which features six players or taller, shot 57.1 percent from the field and outrebounded Northwestern State, 39-20.
 
The Lady Demons return home Friday to conclude a stretch of four games in seven days when they host Mississippi Valley State at 6:30 p.m. That is the lone home game before NSU returns to the road to face Memphis on Nov. 30.