TULSA, Okla. – Northwestern State may not have picked up a win to complete its week-long season-opening road trip, but did get the steady improvements it was looking for in a 65-53 loss at Tulsa on Sunday afternoon.
 
After weathering an early 3-point shooting barrage by the Golden Hurricane (3-0) in the first quarter, the Demons (0-3) played stingy defense to hold Tulsa to 20 points under their early season average and outscore the Golden Hurricane 44-43 over the final 30 minutes of the game.
 
"Our girls played hard and locked in today," head coach Anna Nimz said. "They held their two players that average 26 and 28 to 12 and eight. They took five charges and kept their best players out of game because of it. 
 
"They were disciplined, never gave up, fought hard on defense and out rebounded a great rebounding team. We got better every game this trip. I'm incredibly proud of their overall effort and focus today."
 
For the second straight game, the deep ball did the most damage to the Demons through the first 10 minutes of the game.
 
Tulsa went 5-for-8 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, of their 8-for-16 effort from the field and answered a Sharna Ayres pull-up jumper to open the game with 14 straight points to jump ahead and take a 22-9 lead after the first quarter.
 
The Demons flipped the script on the game in the second quarter with a 3-point shooting display of their own started right away by Jiselle Woodson's triple on the first possession of the quarter.
 
She knocked down a pair in the quarter with Ayres and Nia Hardison adding one each for a 4-for-7 effort from deep as Tulsa converted just two in the quarter and four total after the first quarter.
 
It was Woodson's and Hardison's treys on back-to-back shots that boosted a 10-3 Demon run that cut the lead down to 32-25 with just over three minutes to go.
 
NSU's aggressiveness with the ball and discipline without it paid dividends throughout the day including putting Tulsa's top two scorers Temira Poindexter and Delaine Crawford into first-half foul trouble limiting their playing time to just eight minutes each.
 
The defense took full advantage of their absence and held Tulsa without a field goal for the final 3:37 of the first half. Three Hurricane free throws during that time however game them a 35-25 lead at the half.
 
The team nearly went bucket-for-bucket through the third quarter with Tulsa making just one more field goal and three more free throws than NSU to stretch the lead to 57-42 heading into the fourth.
 
NSU won the fourth quarter by once again playing lock-down defense down the stretch to hold Tulsa to 3-of-11 shooting from the field over the final 10 minutes and holding them without a point for the final 4:43 of the game.
 
Free throws led the way for the Demons in the period as they converted 6-of-10 from the stripe including three from Jordan McLemore and a pair from Karmelah Dean.
 
Ayres (15) and Hardison (12) finished the game in double figures for NSU and five different player had at least five rebounds on the day, led by Hardison's six.