NATCHITOCHES - The next three games for the Northwestern State Lady Demon basketball team could decide its fate for the postseason Southland Conference tournament.  Luckily, all three of those are at home.
           
The Lady Demons (5-17, 1-8 SLC) tip-off the home stand on Wednesday at 7 against Lamar squad that the Lady Demons had a last-second 3-point game-winning attempt fall of the mark in a 58-56 loss back on Jan. 25 in Beaumont.  That game was the second of five league losses that was decided in the final minute of the contest.
           
NSU currently sits in last place in the league standings but are just two games behind Lamar (11-11, 3-5) and Texas-San Antonio in the win column for that eighth and final spot.  NSU holds the tiebreaker over UTSA after its 61-57 win over the Roadrunners back on Jan. 18.
 
The Lady Demons are coming off an 88-86 heartbreaker at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a game that was won with 2.1 seconds remaining when AMCC's Myeisha Myles scored on a putback layup for the win.
 
Lamar dropped UTSA 54-51 in its last outing and is 2-3 in its last five games.
 
The Lady Demons have been led offensively by the trio tandem of Jordi James, Trudy Armstead and Jasmine Upchurch all season long.  James continues to top the team in scoring at 13.9 points per game followed by Armstead at 13.4 and Upchurch with an 11.9 average.
 
Armstead surpassed the 500 career rebound mark after she pulled down 18 against Central Arkansas on Feb. 1 and now has 520 in her career.  In addition to that, she needs just 99 more points to become the 24^th player in school history to reach the 1,000 career points scored milestone.
 
Upchurch has wowed opponents the past few games and has rocketed up to No. 2 in the conference and 30^th in the nation with a 52.7 field goal shooting percentage.  She's also fifth in the league in blocked shots (1.6), sixth in rebounding (8.3) and 16^th in scoring.
 
Over the last four games, Upchurch has sank 64.7 percent of her shots (33 of 51), is averaging 18.3 points, 9.5 boards and 2.5 blocks per game.  And she has scored double-figures in all four contests while recording three double-doubles.
 
Lamar, who is on a six-game winning streak over the Lady Demons, is led in scoring by Kalis Loyd's 14.8 points a game.
 
Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on the Demon Sports Network and carried locally on 97.5 KDBH.  Free live audio streaming and live stats will be available on www.nsudemons.com.
 
NSU's home stand will continue on Saturday with a 2 o'clock contest against Southeastern Louisiana in the Lady Demons' Play4Kay game, formerly Pink Zone.  The Lady Demons will be off on Feb. 15 but will close out the home stretch on Feb. 18 against defending conference champion McNeese State.