HOUSTON – Northwestern State bucked one trend and continued another in their 93-79 win against Houston Baptist on Saturday evening.
The Demons (10-12, 7-6 SLC) won their fourth road game in the last five attempts while scoring 14 more points than the Huskies (3-18, 3-9) had been giving up during their short two-game winning streak.
Limiting the turnovers was the key to the Demons ending the HBU streak, committing just 11 giveaways in the game, the second-lowest total of the season.
"We're getting a lot better and played pretty good turnover-free basketball for a while," head coach Mike McConathy said. "Then we had stretches where we either took shots early in the clock where we didn't get a rebound or went to the bucket with a close shot and didn't get it or the rebound."
It was a game of plenty of runs for the Demons, needing their first early in the first after falling behind 14-8.
Trenton Massner started a 9-2 run with a tip-in layup after an NSU miss that put the Demons on top for the second time in the game. It was his effort that carried the Demon offense through most of the first, going 5-for-5 to start the game and scoring all 12 of his points during the first 14 minutes of the game.
Three lead changes later the Demons began to pull away for the first time. An 11-2 run, that included the final five points for Massner, gave the Demons the 30-22 lead.
The final five minutes of the half turned into a track meet for both teams, scoring almost at will with every possession.
The teams combined for five straight baskets and the Demons made five straight field goals at one point finishing the half 7-for-10 from the field to take a 45-36 lead into the break.
The hot scoring continued into the second half for the Demons starting the second 5-for-6 by the first media timeout. A steal and a transition layup from Jovan Zelebaba made it a 57-44 NSU lead with 16:03 left.
Massner was the hot hand in the first half, but he gave way to the hotter hand in Brian White for the second.
After HBU cut into the Demon lead with a defensive steal and dunk on the other end making it 58-52, a 3-pointer from Jairus Robinson and a jumper from White pushed it back to a double-digit lead.
White found an acrobatic layup and buried a 3-pointer on ensuing possession to give the Demons a commanding 72-55 lead at the midway point of the second half.
White finished the game with 23 points including 15 points in the second half going 4-for-5 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line.
"It was really good for him to come out and have that kind of game," McConathy said. "It really made a lot of difference for us. Between C.J. (Jones) and Brian we ended up with 26 points and six assists from your point guard position and that's pretty good."
White made three straight baskets for the Demons, but the five-minute break between the second and third bucket gave HBU life late in the game. The Huskies scored nine straight making it 72-64 with 5:22 to go in the game.
White's layup ended the run and Chudier Bile made back-to-back jumpers immediately after and the run was over the Demons were back up by 12 within a handful of seconds.
The game turned into a free throw shooting contest during the final five minutes until the final nail was delivered on a 3-pointer by Roberson with 1:39 to go that made it a 15-point game.
Four Demons finished in double figures, including Massner and White, with Bile ending with 12 and Nikos Chougkas recording his fifth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
The Demons play their next three games at home starting with UIW on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.
