NATCHITOCHES—Scoring a career high on Senior Night is always a great feeling.

Doing so in your hometown is even sweeter.

Natchitoches' own Nia Hardison's career-high 21 points lifted Northwestern State to a dominant 76-56 victory on Senior Day after a sluggish start.

"My heart is full," head coach Anna Nimz said. "I am proud of the girls. I am thankful to these seniors. They have done something that Northwestern State women's basketball hasn't done in a really long time. I am proud they put in the work and finally reach some of the benefits."

Hardison's 21 came on 8-of-12 shooting, as Northwestern State (15-14, 12-8) wrapped up its first winning record in the regular season in nearly a decade. The 15-14 overall mark in the regular season and 12-8 conference record give the Demon women their first winnings season both over and in the Southland since 2015-16.

"It feels good to go out and score a career high tonight," Hardison said. "But I didn't go out with a mindset of going out there to score. I was just in the moment of playing the game. It just all came to me."

The Demons overcame a slow start that saw the Lions (7-22, 4-16) shoot 46.7 percent in the first quarter and take a 21-16 lead after the first 10 minutes.

After going scoreless in the first quarter, Mya Blake came out firing in the second, Blake scored 10 of her 19 in the second quarter, as the Demons finished the quarter on a 17-6 run, turning it from a five-point deficit to a 37-31 lead at halftime.

The Demons held a prolific offense to just 10 points in the third quarter, out-scoring the Lions 21-10 to take back the game.

"It always starts with defense," Nimz said. "We've never been a team to blow it out of the water. It always needs to stay focused on our defense. We were very effective on our press and got our hands on a lot of things and were able to score a lot of quick points. That transitioned into better halfcourt defense—better pressure, better hands on ball.

"We held a very good scoring team to 10 points in the second quarter. We just have to figure out how to do that for four quarters without pressing."

While Hardison had two early 3-pointers to start her day off strong, she took over in the third quarter, scoring nine of her 21 in the third quarter, helping the Demons blow open the game, as Northwestern State exploded with a 17-1 spurt to push the lead to 22 points at 57-35.

During that run, Hardison and Mya Blake scored a combined 14 of the 17 points. In the midst of the run, The Demons had 22 points off turnovers in the middle two quarters, scoring 33 points.

Aiming to make one final statement in trying to become conference player of the year, Blake poured in 19 points along with six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

She is just the third Northwestern State women's basketball player to reach 500 points in a season in the last 25 years and first since Beatrice Attura in 2016-17.

In addition to out-scoring East Texas A&M 33-9 in points off turnovers, Northwestern State grabbed 24 rebounds, as the Demons dominated the boards 49-28.

Northwestern State went 8-of-25 from behind the arc, but that stat is deceiving, as it went 1-of-10 in the fourth quarter. When the game was hanging in the balance, the Demons were 7-of-15 through the first three periods.

Quietly, Vernell Atamah posted her sixth double-double of the season, recording 16 rebounds and 10 rebounds, making one final statement to be conference freshman of the year.

Of Atamah's 10 boards, six of them came on the offensive glass.

Two Lions reached double figures, led by Jordyn Newsome, who scored 21 points and recorded four steals.

Cora Horvath tallied 14 points, including burying four 3-pointers.

The Lions' season ends after finishing 11^th in the conference.

The Demons are back in action at the Southland Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed, playing No. 8 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday at 11 a.m. in Lake Charles.

"We're ready for the conference tournament. In these last handful of moments, it's taking all of our good moments and putting them together for 40 minutes and while I am happy after a 20-point win, I don't think we have tickled how good we can actually be."