NATCHITOCHES – Jordan Dupuy told his Northwestern State women's basketball team if it held Sam Houston State to its scoring average the Lady Demons would win Saturday.
 
Northwestern State nearly accomplished that feat as a cosmetic 3-pointer at the buzzer pushed the Bearkats passed their average. Still, the Lady Demons had plenty of offense to notch their second straight win, a 78-51 triumph against Sam Houston State at Prather Coliseum.
 
After a slow defensive start, the Lady Demons (9-8, 3-3) found their stride on that end of the floor. Sam Houston State entered the game averaging 49. 3 points per game.
 
Following the first quarter, Northwestern State locked back in and limited the Bearkats (0-15, 0-5) to 36 points across the final 30 minutes.
 
"We talked to the team about records not mattering in conference," Dupuy said. "Sam's coming off a hard loss at (New Orleans). We played really well on both ends of the floor. We made the extra pass. You look at 20 assists to 12 turnovers, which was huge. Second game in a row to shoot 50 percent. It was a great team win."
 
The Lady Demons took control of the game by outscoring the Bearkats 21-3 in the second quarter. Included in that was a 12-0 run, Northwestern State's third run of at least 12 points in the past two games.
 
NSU held the Bearkats to only one field goal in the quarter and ended the first half with a 13-0 edge in fast-break points.
 
 
While NSU held Sam Houston to 38.2-percent shooting, the Lady Demons were efficient offensively, especially in the second and fourth quarters.
 
NSU connected on 18 of 27 shots in the second and fourth quarters, helping the Lady Demons shoot 52.8 percent for the game.
 
Beatrice Attura tallied her 10^th 20-point game of the season, scoring a game-high 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including four 3-pointers. The long-range shooting display allowed Attura to move into a seventh-place tie on Northwestern State's career 3-point list with 140, equaling Brittiany Houston's mark.
 
Attura added eight assists while committing only one turnover. In her past two games, Attura is averaging 26 points and 9.5 assists per game.
 
"On Thursday, I had 11 assists, but I had eight turnovers, which isn't good," Attura said. "Today I only had one turnover, which is good. As a team, we only had 12 turnovers. If you have 12 turnovers in a game, you're going to win a lot of those games."
 
Attura was one of three Lady Demons to reach double figures, joining Nia Randall (12) and Libba Gilliam (11). Randall established a career high in points for the second straight game while Gilliam matched her career high, scoring nine of her 11 in the second half.
 
Gilliam's second-half surge included her first career 3-pointer, a right-corner 3 that beat the third-quarter buzzer and re-established an 18-point Lady Demons advantage.
 
"I knew when Bea drove she was going to kick it out to me, so I was ready to shoot," Gilliam said. "It felt good when it came off. It's rewarding to see the work you put in pay off."
 
Kiera McKinney paced Sam Houston State with 12 points off the bench while Angela Delaney added 10. 
 
Northwestern State will take the next six days off before resuming Southland Conference play next Saturday at McNeese. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at Burton Coliseum.