By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES - Tuesday night's exhibition game for the Northwestern State men's basketball team against John Melvin lived up to its title.
The Demons shook off a slow start before unleashing a white-hot shooting performance in the second half to run away from the visiting Millers, 121-49, inside Prather Coliseum.
"The emphasis to start the game was to defend with relentless intensity and to share the basketball," second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. "I wasn't too pleased with how we shared it in the first half, but they got the message. When the ball moves, good things happened, and that's exactly what happened in the second half."
With the ball moving crisply in the final 20 minutes, the Demons shot a sizzling 70.6 percent from the field (24 for 34) and heated back up from 3-point range, going 11-for-17 in the second half - a 64.7 percent clip.
Northwestern shot 15-for-35 overall from 3-point range, three days after knocking down 11 3-pointers on 42.3 percent shooting against Rice.
The Demons' unselfish attitude was clear as they assisted on 36 of their 48 made field goals, including 20 of the 24 made shots in the second half.
The ball movement helped junior guard Dontae Walker enjoy a career night. Walker had 21 of his game-high 29 points in the second half, hitting seven of eight shots, including three of four 3-point tries in the final 20 minutes.
Walker added a pair of assists in each half as the Demons eclipsed the 30-assist mark for the first time since March 6, 2014, against Central Arkansas.
"First and foremost, I haven't had a really good start to the season, and I just wanted to get into my flow," Walker said. "My teammates kept with me. They made shots and got me shots. A really big shoutout to them for getting me going, because we're going to have a really good season this year."
The visiting Millers built their biggest lead of the game at five points on Kyle Roach's three-point play with 17:26 to play in the first half before the Demons started a 15-2 run across the next 3:49 to take a lead they did not relinquish.
The hot shooting and unselfish offense helped unlock another key shooter for the Demons, junior guard Landyn Jumawan.
Jumawan joined Walker as one of five Demons to hit double figures, scoring 17 points, largely on the strength of a 4-for-6 performance 3-point range in the second half. He added three assists against no turnovers as Northwestern posted a 36-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio as a team.
"These type of games can get one guy going who probably wasn't shooting well in previous games," Cabrera said. "All it takes is seeing the ball go through the hole to build some confidence. Landyn is a very high IQ player. He's a big-time shooter. Our players made sure they found him and got him the ball. It was good to see that for him, because he puts so much work in. When he wasn't shooting well, I felt terrible for him. I wanted to find other ways for him to see the ball go through the hole. It was great to see it tonight."
In addition to Walker and Jumawan, Chris Mubiru (15), Willie Williams (12) and Lado Laku (10) all reached double figures while Roach paced John Miller with 21.
The Demons return to action Friday when they host ULM in the opening game of the City of Lights Classic. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. inside Prather Coliseum.