NATCHITOCHES – A busy and important week with three home games tips off Monday afternoon at 2 in a rare matinee performance for the Northwestern State basketball team, hoping to provide some early fireworks on New Year's Eve as LeTourneau visits Prather Coliseum.

The Demons (5-4) hope to rebound from a 79-61 defeat at Arkansas Saturday night when the Razorbacks used a late 10-1 run over four minutes to shift a 61-54 advantage into a comfortable lead with three minutes remaining. NSU sank just 27 percent of its shots overall including a miserable 1 of 14 on 3-point tries.

Monday afternoon's game is the last non-conference outing for Northwestern before Southland Conference season tips off Thursday evening in Prather Coliseum with a 5:30 doubleheader against McNeese. Saturday, Lamar will visit for a 1 o'clock doubleheader.

The matchup with LeTourneau (4-7) is the second of a stretch of five games in nine days and seven contests in 14 days for Northwestern.

Senior guard Shamir Davis leads four Demons scoring in double figures, posting a 14.4 average. Redshirt freshman guard Jalan West (14.1), junior forward DeQuan Hicks (13.8) and senior forward James Hulbin (10.7) pace NSU to an 83.4 scoring average that dipped by three points after a season-low output against the Razorbacks.