NEW ORLEANS – The Northwestern State Lady Demons used a strong start in the first five minutes to defeat the New Orleans Privateers 78-61 on Saturday afternoon at Lakefront Arena.
The Lady Demons opened on a 20-2 run by the first media timeout and from there the Privateers were playing chase the rest of the way. Northwestern State went 7-of-9 from the field to start the game and drained six three-pointers at the outset.
The rest of the first half was played nearly at an even split on the scoreboard.
Mariah Hart drained a pair of three-pointers, which was part of her eight points by halftime. New Orleans went to the half trailing 44-25.
The Privateers threatened to commence a rally in the opening stages of the third quarter. New Orleans outscored Northwestern State 11-5 by the media timeout and had back-to-back layups from Hart and
Lauren Banks that cut the deficit down to 13 points.
That was as close as the Privateers got for the remainder of the afternoon as Northwestern State responded over the next three minutes by scoring eight consecutive points to open their lead back up to 21 points.
Vernell Atamah had 24 points and Nya Valentine finished with 22 points and 11 assists. The Lady Demons shot 55.1 percent from the field on the day and made 13-of-24 three-pointers
INSIDE THE BOX
Hailee Brennen finished with six points and tied her career-high in rebounds with 11. Brown added 16 points and six assists. Hart finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 from the field.
Aaliyah Ellis had five steals as the Privateers forced 25 turnovers.
NEXT UP
The Privateers will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m.
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