RUSTON – A sluggish start for the Northwestern State women's basketball team in its resumption of an in-state rivalry made for a tough hill to summit Thursday night.
The visiting Demons fell behind early a double-figure, first-quarter run set the tone for Louisiana Tech, which cruised to a 78-51 victory at the Thomas Assembly Center in the first meeting between the teams in 12 seasons.
"First, congratulations to Louisiana Tech," first-year head coach
Alan Frey said. "We talked a lot the last couple of days about what it takes to be a championship program, and we got a first-hand look at it tonight. We did not meet their energy and effort level in the first half at all. By the time we started competing the way that we know we can, the lead was close to insurmountable."
Northwestern (1-3) committed 25 turnovers, which the Lady Techsters (4-0) turned into 22 points. Louisiana Tech outscored the Demons by 17 points off turnovers while winning the turnover battle by 14.
Three of those turnovers came during a 13-0 first-quarter run for Louisiana Tech that erased Northwestern's lone lead of the game, which came from
Erica Carr's second-chance layup 43 seconds into the game.
Northwestern struggled to score throughout most of the night, shooting 32.7 percent for the game.
The Demons' most efficient quarter came in the third quarter after Louisiana Tech had opened a 23-point halftime lead.
Northwestern connected on 6-of-15 field goal attempts in the quarter but could not slice into the lead. The closest the Demons could come was 19 points on a pair of Peyton Miller free throws with 1:26 remaining in the quarter.
Miller was one of three Northwestern players to crack double figures, sharing the team scoring lead of 12 points with
Stephie Salumu.
KP Parr, coming off a 20-point performance at Oklahoma State on Monday, added 11 points. Both Miller (6-for-6) and Parr (7-for-10) did a good bit of their damage at the free-throw line.
As a team, the Demons sank 16 of 22 free throws, but Northwestern could not string together much offense.
Louisiana Tech, meanwhile, saw Alexia Weaver score 13 first-half points and Alana Obianozie add 10 on 5-for-5 shooting in the opening 20 minutes.
Weaver finished with a game-high 18 points while Obianozie added 14 and Hillary Dawson gave Louisiana Tech a third double-figure scorer with 10 points.
"We need to show up ready to play from the opening tap," Frey said. "That's the standard, and we didn't meet it tonight."
Northwestern returns to action Monday when it comes home to face LSU-Shreveport. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. on Mike McConathy Court at Prather Coliseum.
