By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – Another Saturday afternoon Southland Conference men’s basketball game at Prather Coliseum, another nail-biter for Northwestern State.
For the second time in three weeks, the Demons saw a home game come down to the final seconds with the ball in Jon Sanders II’s hands. This time, Sanders’ twisting layup did not go and Willie Williams’ putback was just after the buzzer as Northwestern fell 65-64 to visiting Southeastern Louisiana.
“I’m proud of my guys’ fight,” second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. “They came back and took a seven-point lead and fought hard. We didn’t play well in the first half – probably one of our worst halves of the season – but we came back and fought hard and took the lead. There were a couple of obstacles in the second half that didn’t benefit us. I give credit to Southeastern. They’re a tough team. They guarded, played hard and played well.”
For much of the first three weeks of league play, the Demons (7-10, 4-3) have had better first-half performances than second halves. For the second straight game, that narrative flipped.
Down 10 after a first half in which Northwestern shot 34.6 percent, the Demons turned to their defense to give them a chance to collect another one-possession victory.
Northwestern locked down Southeastern (10-8, 4-3), holding the Lions to 12 points in the first 12:07 of the second half while fashioning a 14-0 run of its own. Those two forces combined to give the Demons a seven-point lead with 8:46 to play as Williams tipped in his own miss.
“I told our guys in order for us to get back in this, it’s going to be from the defensive end,” Cabrera said. “I was tired of calling (offensive) plays. I felt like I was calling plays every time in the first half. Second half, we got back in it because of our defense. We got transition baskets, played unselfishly. When we did call plays, we ran them and hit the open guy. We drove it and made open shots.”
The 10-point deficit the Demons faced at halftime was gone by the13:26 mark of the second half when Love Bettis sliced through the Southeastern defense for a go-ahead layup that was part of the Demons’ 14-0 run across 4:13 of the half.
Based in large part to that run, Northwestern flipped its shooting percentage to 53.6 percent in the second half.
Still the Lions, who won their fourth straight conference game, had answers.
After Williams’ tip gave the Demons their largest lead of the game, the Lions worked their way back to make it a one-possession game with 3:26 to play. The game was played in a four-point window the rest of the way as the teams traded efficient offense down the stretch.
Following an Addison Patterson layup that gave Northwestern a three-point lead with 2:36 to play, Southeastern hit three of its final four shots, including Sam Hines Jr.’s go-ahead jumper with 8.5 seconds to play.
Patterson led Northwestern State with 16 points while Micah Thomas added 13. Hines (15) and Jakevion Buckey (19) paced the Lions offensively.
“In sports, I always say it, everyone wants to win, and I hate losing,” Cabrera said. “When two teams compete, someone is going home happy and someone is going home upset. Tonight, we were on the short end of the stick.”
The Demons return to action Monday when they host New Orleans. The game has been moved to a 1 p.m. start time because of the threat of inclement weather throughout Louisiana.