NATCHITOCHES – In January, the Northwestern State women's basketball watched Libba Gilliam put up a career high in points in a loss to Southeastern Louisiana.
 
The Lady Demons saw the same movie play out Saturday afternoon, just with a different venues and a different leading scorer.
 
Despite a career-high 26 points from Jocelyn Scott, the Lady Demons fell to the visiting Lady Lions, 64-54, on Senior Day in Prather Coliseum.
 
"It was good to see Joss be able to score inside and out, really from all three different levels – mid-range, 3 ball and we posted her up when (Taylin) Underwood got in foul trouble," second-year head coach Jordan Dupuy said. "We did a great job of finding her, but we've got to have multiple scorers – two, three, four players get in double figures. I can't remember the last time we hit the 60-point plateau."
 
The Lady Demons (7-20, 2-14) fell behind by as many as 13 points in the first quarter before cutting the lead to five at the half. Northwestern State, which never led in the game, tied the game at 33 when Scott connected on a 3-pointer with 6:16 to play in the third quarter.
 
After Scott's bucket, however, the Lady Lions (8-19, 7-9) answered with a 10-2 run to take an eight-point lead. Taylin Underwood sparked the run, scoring the final six points of the surge before the Lady Demons were able to cut the lead to three on a Libba Gilliam 3 with four seconds left in the third quarter.
 
Northwestern State was able to cut the lead to one in the final quarter on a three-point play by Gilliam, who finished with 10 points, giving Northwestern State its first game with multiple double-figure scorers since Scott (13) and Victoria Miller (12) both crossed that plateau in a 61-53 loss to Central Arkansas on Jan. 27.
 
Once the Lady Demons got within a point, Southeastern Louisiana responded by holding Northwestern State without a field goal for 5:59 before Gabby Bell broke the skid with a jumper at the 2:20 mark of the final quarter.
 
Bell's shot pulled Northwestern State within eight but also stood as the Lady Demons' final field goal of Saturday's game.
 
"It gets to the end and, like I told our ladies, it was a microcosm of our season – nobody made a play," Dupuy said. "Too many turnovers. Too many easy shots we missed. We missed 11 layups – that's 22 points left off the board – plus five missed free throws. You look at a 10-point game where 27 points were left off the board because of us. We've got to do a better job of executing and, when we do get the shots we want, knock them in."
 
Scott established career highs in field goals (9), field goal attempts (18), 3-pointers made (5) and attempted (11) an in points while Gilliam blocked a career-high five shots. Tia Youngblood, playing the final home game in her Northwestern State career, grabbed a team-leading eight rebounds.
 
Charliee Dugas paced Southeastern Louisiana with 18 points while Underwood, the Southland Conference's second-leading scorer, had 13 and Kyla Williams added 10 off the bench.
 
Northwestern State starts a season-ending, two-game road trip Wednesday night at Nicholls. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. inside Stopher Gymnasium.