NATCHITOCHES – Oozing with confidence after an historically large win earlier this week, Northwestern State hits the road looking to maintain its upward trajectory.
The Demons (2-4), coming off 82-point and 105-point performances in their last two games, with the latter producing the largest single-game margin of victory in program history, 67 points, return to action against Division I opponents when it faces Southern.
NSU’s first trip to Baton Rouge to face the Jaguars since 2009 will begin at 3 p.m. from the Clark Activity Center.
After a difficult road trip to open the season, immediately followed by the postponement of two games and a frustrating loss to Grambling, the Demons got just what they needed from a pair of wins to end the three-game home stand, some confidence.
With six different players scoring in double figures, a 60 percent shooting effort from the field and three straight halves scoring 50 or more points seeing the ball go through the hoop will, according to head coach Anna Nimz, hopefully lead to similar results going forward.
“That game was an opportunity for them to gain some confidence and to continue to learn and play with one another,” Nimz said. “Our camaraderie and bench energy was tremendous and some of those intangible things like that really started to come together. The biggest thing though was being able to execute our offense, switch some things up and everybody being able to contribute.”
NSU converted 43 field goals in the game with 11 of them coming from beyond the arc, the most in a home game since the 2020-21 season.
Volume 3-point shooter Sharna Ayres knocked down five in the win, her fourth straight game with three or more deep shots, while assassin 3-point shooter Jiselle Woodson ripped 2-of-5 from deep, her fifth game this year with two or more 3s.
Woodson and Ayres currently rank one and two in the Southland Conference in 3-point shooting percentage with Ayres leading the league in makes (17) and makes per game (2.83).
Their efforts from beyond the arc has had direct impact on not only the production but the offense as a whole and its ability to be that much more dynamic.
“I think it gives the team some confidence as a whole and maybe takes some of the pressure off other,” Nimz said of the 3-point shooting. “But the bigger and better our post play gets we’re really going to be able to have that true inside-out game and spread the floor a little bit more. Because of how people will guard different positions it’s going to create opportunity for other players to knock down shots too.”
The Demons scored well over half of their points against Southern (NO) and Arkansas Baptist from inside the paint, averaging 56.0 across those two outings. Jenny Ntambwe is averaging 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds over the past two games around the basket.
NSU takes their confidence and rejuvenation to a Southern team that is winless on the season in five tries, after finishing the first half of a brutal non-conference run. Sunday’s game will be the first for the Jaguars against a non-Power 5 team and one of just two on the season prior to conference play.
“They’ve played an incredibly hard schedule and playing those teams really close,” Nimz said. “They’ve been in some of these game down to the fourth quarter and competing at a high level. What’s probably the most impressive about them is their ability to play quick but understanding their offense if they don’t have something and run it well. They run everything well on both sides of the ball and its just a really good collective unit.”
Junior Soniya Reed is the Jaguars’ top scorer at 9.2 points per game and leads the SWAC in 3-point percentage (.476) with a 10-for-21 rate. In the Jaguars’ four-point loss at Miami two weeks ago, Reed led the team with 12 points, one of four players that scored in double figures on the night.
The disciplined offense ranks third in the SWAC in turnover per game with 16.6 and are shooting 35 percent from the field on the season.
