Saturday, January 6
Natchitoches, Louisiana
12:30 p.m.
Stephen F. Austin
at
Northwestern State
Surging Ladyjacks Continue Road Swing With Midday Matchup in Natchitoches
1/5/2018 10:14:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Ladyjacks and Lady Demons clash for 80th matchup in all-time series
Saturday at Northwestern State
12:30 p.m | Natchitoches, La. | Prather Coliseum
Live stats | Audio | Video ($) | SFA Game Notes | NSU Game Notes
12:30 p.m | Natchitoches, La. | Prather Coliseum
Live stats | Audio | Video ($) | SFA Game Notes | NSU Game Notes
NACOGDCOHES, Texas – Winners of four straight games, including a pair of conference matchups, the Stephen F. Austin women's basketball team has no shortage of momentum or confidence heading into a weekend bout with Northwestern State. SFA sits at 10-3 overall on the season, and will face a Lady Demons team that is 5-9 and in the midst of a three-game slide in a game set for a 12:30 p.m. tip-off inside Prather Coliseum on the campus of Northwestern State.
Saturday's matinee will be streamed live on nsudemons.com via a paid viewing stream. Fans can also follow along with the Ladyjacks on Twitter @SFA_WBB for live updates, as well as following the live stats link at the top of the page. A complete play-by-play call of the action can be heard on FM Q107.7, with Bobby Mauro on the mic.
Having secured its first true road win of the season with an 86-73 win at Nicholls on Wednesday, SFA got past the poor road play that had dogged the team already throughout the young season. The Ladyjacks had struggled to find a shooting touch in road losses to Kansas State, Montana and Montana State, but were able to do so in spectacular fashion versus the Colonels, to the tune of a 52.6 shooting percentage from the field. Furthermore, the Ladyjacks won without relying heavily on turning over an opponent, as the Colonels became just the second team this season to turn the ball over to the Ladyjacks less than 20 times (K-State).
Prior to Wednesday, the Ladyjacks had secured their last two wins with a very balanced and measured offensive approach, and with five players ending in double figures in both games, no one individual effort stood out. That was far from the case on Wednesday, as junior guard Chanell Hayes continued her ascent into a main option on offense with a dazzling display of offensive prowess on the way to a game-high 25 points. With an 8-12 performance from the field, 4-6 beyond the arc and 5-5 at the line, Hayes scored in a variety of ways throughout the contest and had a basket waiting whenever her team needed it. In addition to being the highest point total accrued by a Ladyjack this season, it was also the fourth 20-point game by an SFA player in 2017-18, with Hayes being responsible for the two highest (24 & 25 points). As such, Hayes moved into position as the team's top scorer, with 11.9 points per game, having reached double figures in seven of the past eight contests.
Hayes was not the only Ladyjack to post a nice game on Wednesday, as point guard Taylor Jackson came up big in the contest with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Continuing her strong play as well was Imani Johnson, who kept the momentum from her big game against Southeastern Louisiana with a smooth 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals on 6-9 shooting from the field (2-2 3-Pt). Stevi Parker had a relatively quiet game by her standards but still finished in the neighborhood of a double-double with eight points and seven boards, while Riley Harvey provided some strong play off the bench with nine points and five boards in 16 minutes of action.
Scoring with ease, the 'Jacks built a double-digit lead throughout the first two and a half quarters of play, before the Colonels turned up the heat in the waning minutes of the third quarter. A barrage of three-pointers led the way in a 28-point third quarter, which saw the SFA lead cut to just three points, and wittled down even further to one point in the fourth quarter before SFA responded. A run in the fourth quarter broke the contest open for SFA as the Colonels foundered down the stretch.
The win was representative of the strength of SFA's offense, and was a more accurate representation of the shooting ability of the Ladyjacks than many of the non-conference games had been. SFA is averaging a healthy 78.4 points per game, an average that ranks second in the Southland Conference, and is converting field goals at a 42.4 percent clip, good for third-best in the Southland. An area where the Ladyjacks have continued to excel as they did last year in getting to the foul line, where they rank fourth in the nation in makes (249) and fifth in total attempts (347). On Wednesday, the Ladyjacks had just five free throw attempts in the first half, but accrued 19 more in the second half as they continued to attack the basket and draw contact. Several of the 'Jacks 19 makes in the contest came in a pivotal stretch in the fourth quarter to help the Ladyjacks stave off the resurgent Colonels.
Saturday's opponent, Northwestern State, is a bit of an unknown quantity in the 2017-18 season. The Lady Demons are 5-9 on the season, but 0-3 in conference play and in the midst of a three-game slide. Furthermore, of NSU's five wins, only one came against a Division I opponent, as they took down Louisiana-Monroe by a 70-48 score on December 3. Most recently, the Lady Demons suffered a 62-56 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday, a game in which they led by six points in the fourth quarter before faltering and allowing a late Islander surge to put NSU away. That loss continued a slide that started with a loss to Nicholls to close out 2017, and was the sixth straight loss to a Division I opponent for Northwestern State.
In the second year under head coach Jordan Dupuy, the Lady Demons are looking to improve on a 13-17 campaign last season. Cheyenne Brown leads the team with 13.5 points per game, with Nautica Grant (11.1 ppg) serving as a second option on offense. Averaging 61.2points per game, Northwestern State is shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from beyond the arc. Rebounding is a weakness for the Lady Demons, as the team averages just 33.4 boards per game, and 6-1 forward Libba Gilliam is the leading rebounder with 4.3 boards per game.
As the teams meet on Saturday in Prather Coliseum, it will mark the 80th time the two teams have met up, with SFA owning a 57-22 edge in the all-time series. In the last 10 matchups between SFA and Northwestern State, SFA has come out on top six times and NSU, four. At Prather Coliseum, the Lady Demons have twice bested the Ladyjacks in recent history, including a 76-72 overtime win over SFA there last season, as well as a 72-51 result the year before.
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