RUSTON – For the fifth straight season, longtime north Louisiana rivals Northwestern State and Louisiana Tech tangle on the basketball court as the Demons visit the Bulldogs on the second side of an NSU-Tech doubleheader Wednesday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The women's teams meet at 6 p.m. with the men's tip slated at 8 between the Bulldogs (7-2) and Demons (3-4). Louisiana Tech recovered from a homecourt loss last Wednesday to Louisiana-Lafayette (89-80) with a 69-50 win Saturday night at home over Southern. Northwestern fell 96-76 Saturday at No. 12 Memphis after outshooting Niagara 107-100 a week earlier.

The games will be broadcast on the Demon Sports Network, flagshipped by 100.7 FM KZBL in Natchitoches and including 99.9 KTEZ FM in Many and 92.1 KSYR FM in Shreveport. Audio is also available for free at NSUDemons.com.

The Demons and Bulldogs have met since 1926, the first year of basketball at Louisiana Tech. The series was rekindled five years ago and the teams have split four hard-fought contests, each successfully defending its homecourt. NSU won 89-83 last Dec. 4 in Natchitoches and Louisiana Tech escaped with a classic 94-93 double overtime victory two years ago in Ruston.

The teams are among the country's highest-scoring clubs with the Demons scoring 87.7 points per game (11th nationally) and the Bulldogs at 85.4 (21st). They each rank in the Top 10 nationally in steals, with Louisiana Tech sixth and NSU seventh, both averaging 10.7 per game. The Demons also are sixth in the country at 7.7 blocked shots per game.

Northwestern is fifth nationally in turnover margin, at plus 6.3, and Louisiana Tech is seventh at plus 5.8 per game.

Sophomore point guard Jalan West (17.6 points per game) spearheads the Northwestern offense, averaging six assists per game (21st nationally). Senior forward DeQuan Hicks is scoring 14.7 per contest while freshman guard Zeek Woodley averages 13.7 and senior guard Brison White is at 12.4 per game. Hicks (6.4) and Woodley (5.0) are the top rebounders for the Demons.

Raheem Appleby tops Louisiana Tech with a 15.6 scoring average with Alex Hamilton (14.4) and Chris Anderson (11.9) also in double figures. Anderson and Cordarious Johnson share 5.2 rebounding averages, second on the team behind the 6.1 by Michale Kyser, for the Bulldogs.

Ranking in the country's top 25 in steals are NSU's West (2.57 per game, tied with LSU's Anthony Hickey for 24th) and the Bulldogs' Kenneth Smith (2.63. 20th). Hicks is 33rd at 2.43 per game.

"Louisiana Tech has a very experienced team and they're very good at the guard position, which makes this an especially good matchup," said 15th-year Demons' coach Mike McConathy. "We have to rebound the ball better and we have to be on the attack against their press. They do a great job of getting easy baskets out of their press. Coach (Michael) White does a phenomenal job and has his team playing very, very hard."

The Demons need to improve their shooting aim (43.8), particularly on the perimeter and beyond, with only a 25.3 percent 3-point rate.

"A lot of it is we're taking too many quick shots," said McConathy. "Sometimes it's good to take a quick shot, but it needs to be a quality shot and more often if you'll move the ball you can find a better opportunity."

While he's been a great advocate of playing in-state competition, McConathy admits NSU's contests against Louisiana Tech carry additional meaning for him. He ranks as one of the great players in Bulldogs history, scoring 2,033 points from 1973-77, and having been inducted two years ago in the school's athletic hall of fame.

"Louisiana Tech has been good to me, and I'm very appreciative of the opportunity I had to play for coach Scotty Robertson and coach Emmett Hendricks," he said. "You can't help but reflect on what those four years have meant, of the lifelong friendships I've been blessed with, of the great memories, and most of all the lady who is my head coach, my wife, Connie. It's fun to see friends and until the ball goes up for the opening tip, it's nice. At that point, the switch is completely flipped and it's time to compete."

Last Saturday's loss at Memphis, despite the final 20-point margin, provided signs of progress for the Demons, he said.

"We did some very nice things which showed up on film study. Some of the problem areas we've had. Midline defense, getting to the help side best we possibly can. We did a great job defending interior post feeds, something they had been very good on, the high-low situations," he said. "We did a better job on defensive transition and actually scored more points, 37-26, in transition than they did. Most of theirs came in a bunch when they made the run to get control of the game going into halftime.

"We only had 13 turnovers, Memphis had 17. We made 11 of the last 13 free throws we shot. Memphis is the best team we've played and you have to look for silver linings and areas of improvement, and we had some positives," said McConathy.

The Demons will play without their fifth-leading scorer, Gary Stewart, for the second straight game. He had arthroscopic knee surgery last Thursday and could return for the Jan. 2 Southland Conference opener at home against Sam Houston. Stewart, who had 23 points in NSU's 111-92 win at Auburn, hurt his knee in the next game at LSU and had been hampered in the following three game before opting for surgery.

Northwestern plays its only home game of the month Saturday afternoon at 3 against Louisiana College. A $10 ticket bought at the door of Prather Coliseum also provides access to the downtown riverfront for Saturday evening's fireworks show as part of the Natchitoches Christmas Festival activities.