NATCHITOCHES – Players and coaches involved with Northwestern State basketball through the years gather Saturday to celebrate one of the all-time greats, Dexter Grimsley, and watch another, senior center Will Mosley, lead the red-hot current Demons into a 2 p.m. Southland Conference basketball game in Prather Coliseum against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
It's Demon Basketball Reunion Day, with former team members gathering for a noon luncheon in the coliseum's east concourse, when Grimsley will be presented by former teammate Tony Beaubouef for induction into the Graduate N Club Hall of Fame, the highest honor Northwestern offers its former athletes. Now an Alabama state legislator, Grimsley became one of the Demons' all-time leaders in scoring, rebounding, steals and blocked shots while playing from 1989-93.
 
The Demons (13-9 overall, 6-2 in conference games) will aim for their fifth straight win, their longest streak in Southland action since six in a row in the 2006-07 season.  The team won't be the only red-hot offering Saturday at Prather Coliseum – fans can enjoy $5 bottomless servings of chili beginning at 1:30 in the west concourse as 11 teams compete in NSU's annual Chili Cook-Off.
 
Mosley, NSU's 6-7 senior center, should move up one spot to 12^th in NCAA history in career blocked shots, passing 6-11  Calvin Booth, who had 428 in his career ending in 1999 at Penn State. Mosley rose four places to 13^th, passing Sheldon Williams of Duke, Syracuse's Etan Thomas, Alvin Jones of Georgia Tech and Wyoming's Theo Ratliff, on Wednesday night while he blocked five shots to get to 426 for his career as the Demons won 79-68 at Central Arkansas.
 
Mosley should also crack the Southland's career rebounding top 10 Saturday with his fourth rebound, which will bring him to 1,031 in the last four seasons. He tops NSU in career blocks and is third all-time in rebounding.
 
While Mosley had 10 points in the UCA win, it was 13-point outings by role players Gary Roberson and Gary Stewart that were most impactful. Roberson and junior guard Shamir Davis, who also finished with 13, were key in holding off a second-half challenge by the Bears after the Demons took control with a 28-8 first-half run.
 
Davis is NSU's top scorer with a 13.8 average, shooting 49 percent from the field. Mosley is second with an 11.0 scoring average, while grabbing 9.6 rebounds and averaging 4.3 blocks, second nationally. Senior guard Louis Ellis is scoring 10.3 per game.
 
A&M-Corpus Christi's Islanders are 4-17 overall and 3-6 in the conference, including a 50-49 win at Texas-San Antonio, which beat the visiting Demons 80-62 on Jan. 18 and is tied with NSU and McNeese in second place behind 8-0 Texas-Arlington midway through the 16-game SLC season.  Terence Jones (14.2 average) and Chris Hawkins-Mast (11.8) are the top scorers for the Islanders, who dropped their last two games after winning two in a row following a 77-73 loss to UTA.
 
“They're a very dangerous team with a  new coach (Willis Wilson, formerly at Rice) who I highly respect,” said 13^th-year Demons' coach Mike McConathy. “We need the kind of effort and togetherness that we've had lately, and we have to continue to defend aggressively.”
 
NSU ranks ninth nationally with 9.4 steals per game and have made 25 in the last two contests. The Demons are fifth in the country with a 6.9 blocks average bolstered by 21 in the last two wins.
 
The Demons have guarded the perimeter well in the win streak, allowing only 8 of 48 (17 percent) on 3-pointers. NSU is 11-0 when it holds opponents under 70 points and also when it shoots better than the opposition.
 
The game will be broadcast on the Demon Sports Network, flagshipped by 100.7 KZBL FM in Natchitoches and including 99.9 KTEZ FM in Many and 92.1 KSYR FM in Shreveport. The audio will be streamed on nsudemons.com and Twitter updates will be provided at the @NSUDemonsbkb account.

Saturday afternoon's contest is one of only five home games remaining for NSU. The next one is Monday, Feb. 13 against rival McNeese. Next week, the Demons will make visits to Lamar (Wednesday) and Southeastern Louisiana (Saturday).