LAKE CHARLES—In the first round against East Texas A&M, the second half was the deciding factor in Northwestern State's win.
On Tuesday, it was to the detriment of No. 5 NSU (18-14), as it saw a one-point halftime lead evaporate in a 76-67 loss to No. 4 UTRGV (20-12) in the Southland Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
After holding a slim 28-27 lead at recess, the Vaqueros out-scored the Demons 30-14 in the third quarter, as UTRGV shot 9-of-11 in the period and made all four 3-point attempts, while NSU shot just 3-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from deep. The Vaqueros also made all eight of their free throw attempts in the quarter as well.
"We're all really disappointed," head coach
Anna Nimz said. "Obviously UTRGV is a phenomenal team and congrats to them. At this point in the season, we learned that you need to take things, and we learned a very hard lesson.
"In the third, we came out pretty poor and they executed really well, but on the flip side, we would all say we didn't do our early work and weren't locked in on the back side. UTRGV was the better team today and more detailed team and that is disappointing."
Following a pair of free throws from
Vernell Atamah cut the deficit to 40-39, the Vaqueros went on a 12-1 run to turn the game into 52-40 UTRGV lead late in the third.
For the half, UTRGV shot 65 percent from the field overall in the second half, including making all five shots from deep and all 18 from the charity stripe.
While NSU trailed by as many as 13 in the final 10 minutes, the Demons fought back with one last surge behind Valentine, who poured in a career-high 30 points to keep NSU in the game.
"As a team, we never believe we are completely out of things," Valentine said. "We always have that fight and hope in each other. We looked at one another in the huddle and were like, "let's do it.' One of us hit one and then we were like 'Alright, let's get back into this.' We just came up a little bit short."
The graduate student buried back-to-back triples before an Atamah 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 70-66 with a minute left before Jalayah Ingram scored six straight points of her team-high 22 to close out the game.
Ingram made all 12 of her free throws and as a team, the Vaqueros shot 20-for-20.
NSU's season ends with its first winning record since 2015-16.
After a hot start from East Texas A&M on Monday, NSU started faster this time around, scoring the first five points of the game on a triple from
Tiara Abron and jumper from Valentine and led 10-9 after the first quarter.
NSU's lead grew to 17-11 after a 3-pointer from Atamah and layup from
Clarence Djuela, forcing UTRGV to call timeout.
The Demons maintained the lead for much of the first half and UTRGV's late half lead lasted briefly before Valentine hit a pair of free throws to take back the lead heading into halftime.
The third period started well on a steal and free throws from Celaya, who finishes her career with five points and nine rebounds. Valentine followed with a made 3-pointer to push the lead to 33-29 before the Vaqueros took over the period.
Atamah, the Player of the Year in the conference, scored 17 points and surpassed the 600-point mark this season, the fifth player in program history to accomplish the feat and first since Beatrice Attura in 2016-17.
UTRGV scored 32 points in the paint, so every one of its points either came from the paint, 3-point line or free throw line.
Charlotte O'Keefe recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Vaqueros, who play Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. against top-seeded McNeese.
"I am beyond proud," Nimz said. "I think this team and this program, thanks to players like Nya and Vee and the girls in that locker room, have taken NSU to from where we were six years ago to where we are now. It is a different group and a different belief and I no longer think teams are excited to play us."
