THIBODAUX – For the second straight game Northwestern State had the ball with a chance to tie or win the game in the final seconds. For the second straight game it came up short in a 60-57 loss at Nicholls on Thursday night.
 
The Demons (8-12, 4-5) took the lead on a Karmelah Dean layup with 28 seconds left, the eighth lead change of the quarter. After the Colonels (9-11, 3-6) answered five seconds later, the costliest of NSU's 20 turnovers on the night with six seconds left all but sealed the second straight loss by five points or less.
 
"We've handled a lot of really good presses this season with really long players and tonight we lacked a lot of composure," head coach Anna Nimz said. "We had some people do some nice things but our lack of composure from the beginning to the end was missing a lot of the time. The good thing about handling these swings is we have to focus on our next game immediately and get to work right away on Saturday's game."
 
The NSU defense worked its magic throughout the third quarter, holding Nicholls to just seven total points and without a single point for the final five minutes of the period to take a 42-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
The break in the quarter allowed the Colonels to reset leading to a five-point burst to begin the fourth and go up by one three minutes in. The lead changed hand four times over the next 90 seconds before a layup and pair of free throws from Jordan Todd put the Demons ahead 49-46.
 
The Demons had the chance to extend the lead after a defensive stand, but a miss and five-point blitz by the Colonels flipped the momentum. A layup, NSU turnover and ensuing Colonel 3-pointer put them back ahead in the span of 13 seconds.
 
While the Demons had just four turnovers in the fourth quarter, matching a game low, the Colonels scored a game-high eight points off those turnovers in the period.
 
The sour taste of a finish put a damper on the hot start the Demons began the game with through the first several minutes. They made 3-of-4 shots to start the game, fighting through a lull and finishing the quarter with a 7-0 run to take a 17-13 lead into the second quarter.
 
Todd scored the second of her five field goals in the game, on five attempts, to give the Demons the lead. She finished with a season-high 14 points and matching season-high seven rebounds. Todd scored seven of her total in the dramatic fourth quarter.
 
"She did a nice job with her scoring and attacked the rim really hard rebounding," Nimz said. "She showed some real physical play and was good for us to be able to feed the ball inside and force some different defensive rotations."
 
The Demons cut the Nicholls defense apart through much of the first half with eight assists on their first nine made baskets of the game and had nine on 12 total makes in the first half. Todd and Jasmin Dixon combined for 15 first-half points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field.
 
NSU took a one-point lead into the half, 32-31, after both teams converted on 12 field goals, three each from beyond the arc, with NSU making one more free throw than Nicholls.
 
The finished the game with 12 assists, a better shooting percentage from the field and beyond the arc than Nicholls and outrebounded the Colonels 37-25 in the game.