By: Matthew Bonnette, Associate Sports Information Director
NATCHITOCHES – Jordi James and Ronikka Drake will take the floor for the last time as a Northwestern State basketball player on Saturday when they lead the Lady Demons into the season finale against arch-rival Stephen F. Austin at 2 in Prather Coliseum in Southland Conference action.
The duo will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
James tops the Lady Demons (6-22, 2-13 SLC) in scoring at 15.2 points per game and is coming off a 24-point outing at Nicholls State on Wednesday. She's also moved up to seventh in the league rankings and in her last five games, she's averaging 22.8 points while knocking down 45 percent of her shots from 3-point range (18 of 40).
Drake leads the team in assists with 3.5 per game and is fourth on the team with 7.9 points scored a contest.
“Both Jordi and Ronikka are a big part of our program,” said head coach Jennifer Graf. “They play a lot of minutes for us and both have been starting since they've been here. It's the last game they'll play in Prather Coliseum and the last game they'll put that Lady Demon uniform on, so it's a special day.”
The Lady Demons will be facing a tough opponent in SFA who is under the leadership of first-year head coach Brandon Schneider who has led the Ladyjacks (20-8, 10-5) to their first 20-win season since the 2006-07 year and 27th in school history.
“Stephen F., no matter who their coach is, it seems like they always have a very athletic team,” said Graf. “They have a very athletic and quality team this year. They'll play 10-11-12 players and rotate five in quite often throughout the game. I have no doubt they'll try to push the ball on us and wear us down.”
SFA is led on the offensive end by all-conference candidate Tammara Marion's 14.9 points a game. Marion has set a school record with 78 3-pointers made and is knocking them down at a 40.4 clip to lead the Southland.
The Ladyjacks have punched their ticket to next week's conference tournament and will be the No. 4 seed.
“For so long, this has been such a big rivalry between the two of us,” said Graf. It's always a very competitive game when we hit the floor. We want to send our seniors out with a 'W'.”
SFA owns a 49-18 lead in the all-time series which includes a 71-62 victory over the Lady Demons last season in Nacogdoches and between the two, there have been 18 regular season championships and 16 Southland tournament titles won.
