THIBODAUX—Northwestern State used 20 points from Vernell Atamah and stingy defense to earn a hard-fought 50-46 road victory over Nicholls on Saturday at the David R. Stopher Gymnasium to keep pace atop the Southland Conference standings.

While the Demons (7-6, 4-1) could not completely solve Nicholls' strong defense, NSU's defense was the story, holding the Colonels (7-5, 3-2) to 32.1 percent shooting from the field and just 25 percent in the second half.

Nicholls was held to just 20 points in the second half, as NSU turned a two-point halftime deficit into a victory.

"I'm so proud of their resilience," head coach Anna Nimz said. "Nicholls is always a tough place and team to play. Earning an SLC road win shows a lot of grit. I felt the girls were locked in and focused on executing our defensive game plan."

While Atamah did most of the scoring damage in the game for the Demons, NSU called upon its closer late in the game.

After scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter combined in the last two games, Nya Valentine drained an open mid-range jumper off an inbounds pass with 1:49 left to break a 46-46 deadlock.

Still leading 48-46 with the clock winding down, Tanita Swift missed a layup that was rebounded by Clarence Djuela.

Just like against Lamar, Carla Celaya locked up her opponent to force a miss and help earn the big win. In addition to her defense against Swift, the senior from Spain grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds.

Valentine followed with a pair of free throws to ice the game.

"Nya had ice in her veins to hit the jumper off the baseline out of bounds and close out the game with those final free throws," Nimz said. "She showed tremendous composure."

Swift, Nicholls' leading scorer, was held to 12 points on just 5-of-18 shooting, much of it was due to Celaya's stellar defense.

After a jumper by Nicholls' Marie Kenembeni with 3:47 left to tie the score at 46, the Demons held the home team off the board the rest of the way, forcing the Colonels to go 0-for-6 from the field with a turnover in that stretch.

With the win, NSU earned its third consecutive road victory in league play, a feat that the Demons hadn't accomplished since 2014-15.

While Valentine sealed the win, Atamah started the game off on the right foot.

Atamah scored 10 of NSU's 13 points in the first quarter and 13 of the first 16 overall, helping the Demons take the lead for much of the first half before a 12-2 run to end the half gave the Colonels a 26-24 advantage at halftime.

Sh'Diamond McKnight and Anyra Wilson combined for 10 of the 12 for Nicholls in that spurt, as Nicholls went 5-for-8 from the field and 2-of-2 from the free throw line in the stretch.

In a game of runs, it was the Demons turn to finish a quarter with a big run in the third quarter, as NSU capped off the third on 10-2 spurt to give the Demons a 41-36 lead after three. It was capped off by a big triple from Tiara Abron, her second 3-pointer of the game.

The Demons used the 3-pointer effectively, starting the game making four of their first five from deep and 7-of-13 overall.

Abron made both of her triple tries and she locked up the Colonels shooters as well, helping the Demons allow Nicholls to shoot just 2-of-18 from deep, including making just one of its final 14.

After scoring 20 of her 42 points in the final quarter of the last two games, Valentine scored four of her nine in the fourth against Nicholls.

Swift and Kenembeni led the Colonels with 12 points apiece.

Once again, the Demons won the rebounding battle, out-rebounding Nicholls 39-31.

NSU comes home for two in a row, starting with UTRGV on Thursday before rounding out the weekend with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Jan. 10.