KATY, Texas – Northwestern State's track record of Southland Conference Tournament success, and the spectacular albeit sporadic performances by this year's Demons, gives 13^th-year NSU coach Mike McConathy plenty of optimism as his team takes on Lamar Wednesday at 2:30 in a tournament quarterfinal matchup at the Merrell Center.
 
The Demons (16-15) and the Cardinals (20-11) split regular season games, NSU winning 74-62 at home and Lamar rolling 85-66 in Beaumont. McConathy has guided six teams to the Southland Tournament finals, winning in 2001 and 2006, with NSU 14-6 in conference tournament games in his tenure.
 
“Depth has always been a big plus for our team. Over a four-day tournament, depth helps keep legs fresh. We play a lot of players all season long to be in the best position to have everybody able to contribute, especially now. We are built for tournament play,” said McConathy. “It's a three-game season, and if you keep winning, it starts another season, the NCAA Tournament, next week.  The guys have to believe in the system, believe in each other, and it's been proven successful if the team rises to the occasion.”
 
Northwestern opened league play 7-2, but lost six of its last eight games overall, going 1-6 in conference games, while Lamar has won its last three following a skid of three losses in four outings.
 
“At times we've played as well as any team I've coached at Northwestern,” said McConathy. “We had a 27-point lead late on Arkansas-Little Rock, who won their division in the Sun Belt. We had a 22-point lead on a 17-win Campbell team that beat Iowa by 16, and we held Campbell, who was No. 2 in the country in field goal percentage, to its worst shooting of the season. We were up 42 late last week against a Nicholls team that had won five of its last six. If we can get on one of those rolls, it could be a pretty special run.”
 
The Demons are the No. 6 seed, while the Cardinals are perched at No. 3 behind Texas-Arlington and Stephen F. Austin. SFA plays No. 7 Sam Houston State in another Wednesday quarterfinal, with the winner there matching up against the NSU-Lamar survivor in a 6:05 Thursday semifinal.
 
“We've won as a lower seed. We've been beaten by a lower seed last year that went on to win the tournament. The seed doesn't matter, it's about the matchups, and we're hopeful the Lamar matchup is a good matchup,” said McConathy. “Everybody is 0-0 now and nothing up to this means anything. The best team this week will win.”
 
Lamar has three All-Southland Conference standouts, guards Mike James (16.8 scoring average), Anthony Miles (14.6) and Devon Lamb (12 points, 8.3 rebounds, second in the SLC behind NSU's William Mosley).
 
“They're dangerous because they have great players, guys who can really score the basketball, and we have to keep them in check. We can also score the basketball, and when we do, we're pretty good,” said McConathy. “They've played very well recently and overall they've had a very fine season.”
 
Said third-team All-SLC selection Shamir Davis, a junior point guard leading NSU with a 13.4 scoring average:


“Lamar has great guard play, some good rebounders inside. Lamb is outstanding there. Obviously we've got to do a better job rebounding and we'll knock down our share of shots.”
 
Mosley rejoined the team for a walk-through Monday night, and travelled with the Demons Tuesday morning to Katy following a team practice. The senior center suffered the sudden passing of his nearly-year-old twin boys Saturday night.
 
“Obviously he's hurting,” said Davis, also a high school teammate of Mosley's at Shreveport-Huntington. “We've never seen or heard of anything like it, and we're trying our best to handle it and to support him. We know this is his last year and he really wants that ring. If we didn't have reason before, we really have one now.”
 
Mosley is NSU's second-leading scorer with an 11.3 average, 18.5 per game in the last two games. He tops the Southland with his 9.6 rebounding average and is second nationally with 4.1 blocked shots 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 will be streamed on nsudemons.com with free streaming video on SLC Now at the southland.org website. Twitter updates will be provided at the @NSUDemonsMBB account.