NATCHITOCHES—Cold shooting in the second half did in the Northwestern State women's basketball team in a 61-55 defeat against UTRGV on Thursday evening at Prather Coliseum.

NSU (7-7, 4-2) shot just 6-of-26 in the second half, including 3-of-16 in the final period, as the Demons couldn't maintain a second half lead.

Following a jumper from Nya Valentine to put NSU in front 54-50 with 3:20 remaining, the Demons missed their final six shots of the game as the Vaqueros (7-8, 4-2) used the free throw line to out-score the Demons 11-1 to close out the game.

"I don't want to take anything away from UTRGV because it played a tremendous game," head coach Anna Nimz said. "But the two games in conference we have lost, we beat ourselves.

"We had five turnovers at half and they switched nothing at half, and we ended up with 18. I was disappointed we didn't see that extra dial-in and that commitment, where we did have that in games we've won. You hate it because there were so many positives in the game, but knowing we could be 6-0 in conference, it's tough."

Down 55-54, UTRGV made 7-of-8 from the charity stripe to finish off the game, including 6-of-6 from Jalayah Ingram.

For the game, the Vaqueros used the charity stripe to their advantage, going 17-of-21. Ingram scored a game-high 23 points, including 11-of-12 from the free throw line.

After a tight first quarter in which NSU trailed by a point after one, the Demons jumped out of the gate in the second quarter, using a 13-3 spurt and extended 22-10 run to turn a deficit into a 34-25 lead, their largest of the game.

The Demons top two scorers, Valentine and Vernell Atamah, scored 13 of the 22 points in that run.

NSU shot 50 percent in the second frame, but was held to 30 percent or worse in each of the other three quarters, coming out to 32.1 percent for the game, compared to 37.7 percent for UTRGV.

Valentine led NSU with 18 points and seven assists, but she was saddled with foul trouble for much of the second half.

Atamah scored 16 points and secured seven rebounds for NSU, making four 3-pointers to bring her total to 44 on the season, exactly halfway to Beatrice Attura's single-season school record of 88, set in 2016-17.

After five straight empty possessions to begin the second half and the Vaqueros responded with five straight to begin the final 20 minutes, including three NSU turnovers, the Demons responded with an Atamah bucket and five straight points from Tiara Abron, including a bucket and foul in transition to give the home team a 43-35 advantage.

But every time NSU had a run, UTRGV responded. The Vaqueros used an eight-point run, finished off by an Erin Maguire three-point play, to tie the score, before a pair of Atamah free throws gave the Demons a 45-43 lead at the end of three.

Ingram started the fourth with a jumper, plus a foul, to give the visitors the lead. It started a 13-point final period for her.

In her second game back after missing time, Charlotte O'Keefe nearly posted a double-double with 12 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

Clarence Djuela scored three points for the Demons, as well as grabbing 11 rebounds and blocking three shots.

It's a short lay-off for the Demons, as they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday for the annual Fork Cancer game as part of a doubleheader to close out the home weekend before going on the road for three, starting with a trip to Houston Christian on Jan. 15.