NATCHITOCHES, La. – HCU women's basketball fell just short, 63-61, in a tightly-contested Southland Conference road matchup on Thursday evening inside Prather Coliseum, losing to Northwestern State.
Northwestern State (6-8, 2-1 SLC) jumped out to a 5-0 lead but
Kennedy Wilson and
N'Denasija Collins answered with a pair of three-pointers to put HCU (5-9, 0-3 SLC) ahead 6-5 less than three minutes in. The Lady Demons regained the lead on the next possession but the Huskies tied it up two more times, bringing the score to 10-10 with 5:54 left in the first quarter.
The hosts went back ahead after that and held onto the lead throughout the rest of the first half but never led by more than eight. Three points late in the half from Wilson ended scoring in the second quarter and made it a 32-27 game at the break.
In the second half, NSU held HCU at arm's length, taking a 43-35 lead at the 4:40 mark in the third quarter.
Erin Maguire hits a jumper and then Wilson scored the next six for a 8-0 Huskies' run to even the score at 43-43. The Lady Demons had an answer, however, scoring the final five points of the quarter for a 48-43 advantage with the final 10 minutes remaining.
HCU chipped away at the NSU lead and with 7:59 on the clock, Collins converted an and-one opportunity to bring the score even again, 51-51. The Lady Demons scored the next four before Collins hit a jumper to keep it within two for HCU. A Sharna Ayres three on the next possession made it a five-point NSU lead but Wilson answered with a jumper and 40 seconds later Collins drained another three to make it 58-58 with 3:39 to go. Both teams went scoreless for the next two and a half minutes with Jenny Ntambwe making a layup with 59 seconds left. NSU got a free throw at the 18 second mark, leaving HCU down three. Collins' three-point attempt with 10 seconds left was off target and Jiselle Woodson drained a pair of free throws four seconds later. Wilson knocked down her third three of the game ahead of the buzzer for the 63-61 final.
Wilson finished the evening with a career-high 24 points to lead all players, connecting on 6-of-12 from the floor, 3-of-6 from three and 9-of-12 from the charity stripe. The senior also had three assists, three rebounds and a steal. Collins chipped in 13 points, eight rebounds, a pair of steals and a pair of assists.
Jo Oly set a new career-best with a game-high 10 rebounds while
Erin Maguire matched her season-high of nine points and added four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
The Huskies shot 37.5 percent (18-of-48) from the floor and made 85.7 percent (18-of-21) from the foul line.
HCU travels on to Commerce, Texas for a Saturday, Jan. 13, afternoon matchup with Texas A&M-Commerce at 3:30 p.m.
