NACOGDOCHES, Texas – After the sharpest shooting Mike McConathy has enjoyed in his 13 seasons as Northwestern State's basketball coach, his Demons wrap up the regular season against one of the nation's top defensive teams Saturday night at Stephen F. Austin in what could be the first of two straight confrontations with the Lumberjacks.
 
Tipoff is 6 o'clock at SFA's Johnson Coliseum. SFA (18-11 overall, 11-4 in the Southland Conference) needs a win to clinch the league runner-up spot and a No. 2 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament. If NSU (16-14, 8-7) prevails over SFA for the second straight year, the teams will meet again at 2:30 Wednesday in Katy, Texas, in a tournament quarterfinal game.
 
The Demons poured in 64 percent of their shots overall and 61 percent (11-18) of their 3-pointers while smashing Nicholls 92-61 Wednesday night. Northwestern led by 40 with two minutes left. The overall and 3-point aim are the best performances by a McConathy team.
 
“We just played Demon basketball – we played together and had fun,” said junior forward James Hulbin. “We executed, played good defense, and got it going. We locked down and guarded, and as a result we got up and down the court. We were prepared real well by the coaches and we took it out and did what they said to do.”
 
Tempo will be a pivotal factor against the Lumberjacks, who haven't given up more than 66 this season. The last team to score 70 against SFA is NSU in last year's regular-season finale, a 70-65 Demons victory.
 
“We have to speed them up, pressure the ball, make them do things they don't want to do,” said Hulbin.
 
Northwestern is led by junior point guard Shamir Davis with a 13.6 scoring average, just ahead of seniors Louis Ellis (11.2) and William Mosley (11.1). Ellis is averaging 18.5 in the last two games while Mosley notched a career-best 20 points against Nicholls.
 
Mosley is the nation's second-ranked shot blocker (4.2 per game) and No. 29 rebounder (9.8 pg). His 456 career blocks ranks fifth in NCAA history, 25 behind Tim Duncan's 481 for fourth.
 
SFA is led by Jereal Scott's 12.7 scoring average. Taylor Smith is scoring 10.8 in league play while shooting 70 percent and averaging 6.7 rebounds. Antonio Bostic scores 11.2 per game.
 
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 and video will be streamed on nsudemons.com with Twitter updates provided at the @NSUDemonsMBB account.