KATY, Texas – Trying to overcome a perplexing stumbling block Thursday, Jordan Dupuy pulled out all the stops.

A carpet, a chair, and even a trash can.

Those items, adorned with Northwestern State logoes and images, were brought from the Lady Demon basketball team's happy place, where they were 12-4 this season and at times, as good as any team in the Southland Conference.

NSU's rookie head coach sought to create a sense of being back home in Prather Coliseum, hoping the talismans might provide a winning edge in the first round of the Southland Tournament against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The motivational ploy had a measure of success, perhaps warding off an all-systems meltdown like ones that smacked NSU off-track in befuddling losses at a couple of cellar-dwelling foes during the conference season. The Lady Demons were saddled with a 1-12 road record entering the midday matchup at the Merrell Center. The 13^th defeat was the most unkind of all.

The 57-46 loss ended NSU's season in a building where the program enjoyed stirring moments a couple of years earlier. The Lady Demons went 7-0 at the Merrell Center while sweeping to Southland Tournament titles and NCAA Tournament berths in 2014 and 2015, with Beatrice Attura, a 2017 senior, leading the way two years earlier as she earned tournament MVP honors.

Postgame Thursday, Attura, now a first-team Academic All-American and the 12^th-most prolific scorer in school history, was understandably despondent, despite Dupuy's best efforts.

"I tried to do anything I could think of to give them a sense of being at home," said the first-year NSU head coach. "We've been extremely good there and it's been 180 degrees too often on the road.

"Today, we had the lead at halftime, played our hearts out, but we never could get in any rhythm offensively. The energy Corpus played with coming out in the third quarter, we couldn't counter, and the game changed," he said regretfully. "But we mustered enough courage to fight within four in the fourth quarter, before their depth was just too big a factor for us to overcome."

The Islanders rallied from down 20-16 with a 22-8 surge in the third quarter, then held off a Lady Demons' comeback bid.

However it happened, it resulted in another subdued bus ride back home. Someone who has shared too many of those this season, Demon Sports Network play by play announcer Tony Taglavore, tried to put his finger on the problem.

"There's no lack of preparation nor focus when they're on the road. It's strictly business. We get to where we're going, we usually eat dinner in a very short amount of time, go to the hotel, and they have meetings, go over game plans, watch film. The assistant coaches take up the players' phones so they don't have distractions. On game day, they have shootaround, more preparation, and no stone seems unturned. It's been mystifying to see them struggle like this."

Perhaps, he offered, NSU's homecourt advantage has a strange, subtle influence on the team's performance elsewhere this season.

"You could make a case for our home crowd being so good that our team struggles without them in, how shall I say this, less energetic venues on the road. They have to create their own atmosphere and excitement at some places we play, because there's no comparison with the support the Lady Demons get in Prather Coliseum," said Taglavore, who wrapped up his ninth season calling the NSU women's games.

Sophomore center Cheyenne Brown acknowledged Prather's power but pointed out the same players who sparkle in their home whites are just pulling on purple road uniforms, and the baskets are still 10 feet high and 88 feet apart.

"At home, we have our support system behind us, and we feel comfortable there. There shouldn't be any difference on the road. You should be the same team. You're the same people with the same preparation," said Brown, who averaged 17 points and 7 rebounds this year. "I don't know what happened, why we couldn't be successful on the road.

\"We couldn't figure it out. I know we did our best trying to find the right answer," she said. "We have to overcome this next year, because winning on the road is very important. I don't know what it is, but we didn't produce as well."

It's a conundrum that Dupuy and staff will carry through the offseason.

"I talked to the team (postgame) about between now and we meet on Monday, the self-reflection that's got to take place, and it's no different for the coaching staff. The biggest thing I've got to figure out is what didn't translate when we went on the road. I don't get it," he said. "There's got to be an answer. Hopefully I'll be a better coach the second time around."

As painful as Thursday's season end was, the young coach was grateful.

 "I'm proud of my girls for fighting to the end. I wouldn't be as upset as I am if I didn't have such a great group to coach," he said. "My two seniors, I love them to death and wish I had more time with them."

In his introductory press conference last May 10, Dupuy boldly said the Lady Demons would continue to hang postseason banners in Prather Coliseum, and would soon be earning regular-season championship rings for the players. But he had his priorities in order.

"We're going to do three things: We're going to win in the community, win in the classroom and win on the court," he said that lovely spring afternoon.

His first campaign completed sooner, and not as successfully as he hoped, Dupuy didn't get caught up in the short term outcome.

"Our season is not over, the games are. This is bigger than wins and losses," he said in the postgame press conference. "It's focusing on our academics and maintaining the high level of achievement we've had in that area. It's about continuing our service to the campus and community. We didn't win at the rate we want, we didn't win like we will, but we have young ladies who are definitely winners and that's a 24-7-365 thing."