NATCHITOCHES, La. - It took a 14-0 third quarter run for Lamar University (16-7, 11-3 SLC) to rally from a 12-point deficit and pull off a 58-46 comeback victory over Northwestern State (12-11, 9-5 SLC) Thursday at the Prather Center. This win punches the Cardinals' ticket into the upcoming Southland Conference tournament, which will be held at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles, La.
Sabria Dean was the leading scorer with 18 points and also led Big Red with six rebounds. R'Mani Taylor recorded 16 points and stole the ball four times while NJ Weems added 10 points.
While the Cardinals finished hitting 39.3 percent from the field, it wasn't without the second-half dominance where they converted 54.1 percent to ignite the comeback win. LU would make 75 percent (12-16) from the free throw line and forced 26 turnovers, which turned into 22 points.
Early on, Big Red went into a dry spell as it was held to 4-of-18 from the field. The Demons raced out to an 18-6 lead by hitting seven of their first nine shots. Dean would tally six of LU's eight points in the quarter, but the Demons would take a 20-8 lead after hitting 66.7 percent.
While Dean posted another six-point quarter in the second, the Cardinals couldn't bring the deficit to single digits for the first six minutes. Down 26-14, LU answered with five straight to trail 26-19. The Demons would get the last three points and had a 10-point lead at the break. One positive for the Cardinals, however, was that they conceded fewer than 10 points from NSU and it wouldn't be the only time they would do so in the game.
After the Demons scored the opening third quarter basket to lead 31-19, Big Red found its offensive rhythm scoring the next 14 points to grab its first lead 33-31. NSU knotted the score at 33 before Dean's go-ahead basket gave the Cardinals the lead for good. Behind four points each from Taylor, Weems, Akasha Davis, and Taliah Hill, LU shot 53.3 percent from the field and held the Demons to seven points on 25 percent shooting to take a 41-36 lead after three.
The Cardinals shot better than 55 percent fourth quarter as Taylor would string together nine points, including a pair of threes. LU grabbed their first double-digit lead at 48-38 before the Demons threatened to rally back trailing 53-46 with under four to play. All hope vanished from NSU when T'Aaliyah Miner came off the bench to score a critical lay-up and the Cardinals wouldn't allow another basket for the rest of the game.
The Cardinals head up to Commerce Saturday to meet with East Texas A&M at the Commerce Fieldhouse. The game, scheduled to tip off at noon, will be broadcast on Newstalk 560 KLVI and streamed on ESPN+.
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