No. 6 Northwestern State pulls off upset of No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana
KATY, Texas - Northwestern State’s women’s basketball team defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 51-45, to advance to the semifinals of the State Farm Southland Conference Tournament. The No. 6-seeded Lady Demons eliminate No. 3 Southeastern from tournament play and will take on the winner of the game between No. 2 UTSA and No. 7 McNeese State Friday at 12:05 p.m.
While the final score was in doubt until the final buzzer, Northwestern State (19-12) never trailed after the opening three minutes in what was the opening game of the tournament. The Lady Demons secured their largest advantage of the game at 43-34 with five minutes left in regulation when Anna Cate Williams drove to the lane and scored on a layup. Southeastern (19-12) cut the deficit to two points at 43-41 when Charinee Mitchell sunk a pair of free throws with 2:04 remaining, but Williams got an offensive rebound and drained a deep three-pointer with just 45 seconds to help secure the Lady Demons’ victory.
In the first half, Kristy Carlin hit a 15-foot jumper to give Southeastern its only lead at 2-0. After a jumper from Northwestern State’s Demetria White tied the game at 2-2, White assisted on a three-pointer from Jessica McPhail for a lead the Lady Demons would not relinquish. Northwestern State took a six-point lead, its biggest of the half, three times in the opening 20 minutes, with the last one coming on a jumper from Courtney Shead, who was in her first game after missing time due to an injury, to make the score 22-16. The Lady Demons held a 24-19 lead at the intermission.
White and Williams led all players with 11 points each. Shead led Northwestern State with eight rebounds. Southeastern’s top scoreres were Bethany Sinclair, Sinclair and Mitchell. The Lady Lions top rebounder was Zevy Ivory with nine.