NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State men's basketball team's home opener went, in many ways, the same way the finale of its season-opening, three-game road trip had.
The one key difference for the Demons was the result.
Northwestern's offense came to life late Tuesday night on Mike McConathy Court at Prather Coliseum as the Demons pulled away from visiting Millsaps for a 77-49 victory.
"I'm proud of the win," fourth-year head coach
Rick Cabrera said. "It's hard to win at this level, so we'll take every win we can get. It was a slow-paced game I didn't like our first half. The zone slowed us down, and we weren't able to get enough stops to get into transition."
Despite a first half where the Demons (1-3) shot just 35.7 percent from the field – including 1 for 7 from 3-point range – Northwestern's defense stood tall, holding the Majors to 33.3-percent shooting.
Millsaps, which played the game as an exhibition, entered the game having shot nearly 46 percent in its first two games of the season this past weekend at the Rhodes College Classic in Memphis, Tennessee.
The sluggishness continued into the first 10 minutes of the second half, which allowed Millsaps to cut the Demon lead to 10 with 10:56 remaining.
From there, Northwestern did to the Majors on Saturday.
The Demons clamped down defensively, holding Millsaps to 1-for-16 shooting across the final 10:56 of the game. Millsaps missed 15 straight shots from the field before Samuel Holt laid in a second-chance basket at the buzzer.
"Coach preaches (defense) all the time," said junior point guard
Kai Simpson, whose 17 points led five Demons in double figures. "Most of the time in practice, that's where the emphasis is. Even though your shot may not be falling or I'm turning the ball over, I try to play hard on defense every day."
The point of offensive emphasis for the Demons in the second half was working to their size advantage. After scuffling around the rim in the first half, Northwestern found its offensive touch in the final 20 minutes.
During the second half, Northwestern outscored Millsaps 22-2 in the paint, thanks to a balanced frontcourt effort.
Sophomore forward
Isaiah Vick tallied a double-double in his Demon home debut, scoring 12 points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds. Senior forward
Kordrick Turner added 11 points to match his career high while
Jayden Nesbitt (6 points, 1 block) was active and effective in a short period of time on the floor.
"I will say there were a little bit of nerves for everybody," Vick said. "We're learning from every game, finding out who we are as players and as a team. I feel like we learn a lot from every game."
Doyle Brown and
Antoine Almuttar rounded out Northwestern's five double-figure scorers, marking the first time since a Jan. 3 win against LSU-New Orleans for the Demons to have that many reach at least 10 points.
Overall, nine of the 11 Demons who appeared in the game scored as Northwestern eventually solved Millsaps' zone, shooting 59.1 percent in the second half.
"Credit to those guys," Cabrera said. "They gave us a spark. Antoine's a defensive demon. Armon (Almuttar) is a tough dude. I should have played Jayden more in the first half. We have a three-big rotation, and sometimes you can't play all three in a half, but I'm proud of him not letting it faze him. He came in to earn his minutes, and he did that."
The Demons return to action Saturday when they face Little Rock. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Jack Stephens Center.
