CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – For the second time in as many road games, the Northwestern State men's basketball team found its offense in the second half.
 
However, this time the Demons were unable to overcome a sluggish first half, falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 72-61, in Southland Conference action Monday night in the American Bank Center.
 
"We lost the game in the first half," first-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. "We tend to look at what happens at the end, because it's the first thing on your memory. We did a poor job getting back in transition and talking in the first half. I've got to coach that better. We'll learn from it. I love my team, and I like our fight, but we've got to be better to beat good teams."
 
Neither team found much offensive traction in the first half as Northwestern State (8-19, 6-8) shot just 24.2 percent from the floor. The homestanding Islanders (16-10, 9-4) were not much better, shooting 11-for-34 from the field – a 32.4-percent clip.
 
Despite the offensive struggles, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi built a 14-point halftime lead, methodically building on it throughout the first half. The Islanders' longest run of the half was a 7-0 spurt following a Braelon Bush jumper that pulled Northwestern State within two points at the 11:35 mark of the first half.
 
Where the Islanders flourished early was in transition and on the offensive glass. The Islanders outscored the Demons 17-0 in fast-break points in the first half and turned 12 offensive rebounds into nine second-chance points.
 
As they did in Saturday's win at UIW, the Demons found a higher offensive gear in the second half.
 
Against the Southland's No. 2-ranked field goal percentage defense, Northwestern State shot 59.1 percent in the second half, sinking 13 of 22 shots while maintaining their defensive intensity. The Demons limited the Islanders to 36.5-percent shooting in the game, nearly seven percent less than their season average.
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi made up for their struggles by grabbing 16 offensive rebounds on their 40 missed shots – a 40 percent offensive rebounding mark.
 
"When you give up 18 offensive rebounds, you're not going to win a lot of basketball games," Cabrera said. "That was the game to me. We hold a team to 36-percent field goal percentage on their home court, and we lose the game. It's because of offensive rebounds."
 
Once the Demons settled in and grabbed a few defensive rebounds – NSU won the second-half rebounding battle by two despite losing the overall battle on the boards by 13 – they began to slice into the Islanders' 20-point lead.
 
Down by that margin with 9:54 to play, the Demons cut the deficit to six with 2:48 to play as Jimel Lane capped an 11-0 Northwestern State run with a backcourt steal and layup.
 
Dian Wright-Forde's second-chance jumper re-established an eight-point Islander lead on the next possession before Wright-Forde, who finished with 21 points, missed an open layup with 1:18 to play.
 
Bush, who scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half, flew down the lane for his final two points of the game to again cut the lead to six. That would be as close as the Demons could get in the final minute-plus of the game.
 
"We shot 60 percent in the second half," Cabrera said. "When we score, our defense gets a lot better. We told them in timeouts, 'Be patient. Keep fighting.' Jimel did a phenomenal job defensively getting some deflections. We drove the basketball. There were some set plays we scored out of. We did a good job in the second half, but in the game of basketball, you don't win on halves. You win on full games.
 
"The first half put us in position to play catch up. Playing catch up on the road against a second-place team in a conference is tough. They are very disciplined and tough. I hope we get to see them again."
 
Both Bush and Duane Posey had big offensive second halves for Northwestern State with Posey sinking all four of his shots en route to scoring 12 of his team-high 16 in the final 20 minutes.
 
Jordan Roberts led the Islanders with a career-high 22 points.
 
The Demons return to action Saturday when they cap their three-game Southland Conference road trip at HCU. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. inside Sharp Gym.