Rice hands Lady Demons 80-44 loss

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State battled more than the post-holiday blues on Tuesday night as Rice held the Lady Demons to their lowest scoring output of the season after an 80-44 victory in Prather Coliseum. The loss was the second straight suffered by NSU (4-8) and fourth defeat in its last five games while Rice improves to 7-5 on the season. Trudy Armstead and Jordi James led the Lady Demons with 12 points each while Brittiany Houston added 10, but 25 percent shooting from the field for the game, including a dismal 18.4 percent in the second half, kept the Lady Demons from making it any kind of a contest after opening the game with a 4-0 lead. Rice, led by five players in double figures and a game-high 14 points by Brianna Hypolite, took the lead for good after a layup by Amenemope McKinney made it 14-12 with 12:43 to play in the half. The Owls led by as much as 15 points at 35-20 late in the half before Northwestern State managed to close it to a 36-24 deficit at the break. Three-time Conference USA Freshman of the Week recipient Jessica Kuster added 13 points and a career-high 18 rebounds to help pace the Owls to a 56-35 advantage on the boards. That number was just four shy of the Prather Coliseum record of 22 set by NSU's Joskeen Garner in 1993 and the most boards pulled in the arena since NSU's Tena Matthews grabbed 19 boards in 2007. After shooting just 33.3 percent in the first half, it didn't seem things could any worse but that proved to be corrected after the Lady Demons missed nine of their first 10 shots in the second half and fell behind 58-28 midway through the half. In the meantime, Rice put together a 30-6 run through the first 12 minutes of the second half and put the game away. NSU connected on just 7 for 38 for 18.4 percent from the floor in the second half and was 1 of 17 from 3-point range for the game, including 0 for 8 in the second half. Rice, who hit 26 of 57 for the game for 45.6 percent, outshot the Lady Demons at the free throw line 24-9. The Lady Demons will take off a week to try to regroup before returning to action on Jan. 4 when they host LSU-Shreveport in the first game of a doubleheader.