BEAUMONT, Texas – Stinging from the end of a six-game win streak, the Northwestern State basketball team continues a string of road games and begins the home stretch of the Southland Conference season Saturday evening at Lamar.

The Demons (11-12 overall, 7-5 in the Southland) and the Cardinals (3-21, 2-10) collide at 6 p.m. at the Montagne Center with NSU hoping to repeat a 99-85 victory over Lamar on Jan. 4. Northwestern is aiming for its second straight season sweep of the Cardinals.

Both teams suffered tough losses Thursday. Northwestern all but wiped out a 16-point second-half deficit, with a fierce closing run getting the Demons within 66-64 with three seconds left before a last-gasp 40-foot 3-pointer was off the mark at the buzzer in a 67-64 defeat at second-place Sam Houston State. Lamar led first-place Stephen F. Austin for a while and battled the Lumberjacks valiantly before bowing 78-69 in Beaumont.

It's the second in a stretch of five consecutive road games for NSU. The Demons begin the final third of the conference's 18-game season with the trip to Beaumont. Their last two games March 6 and 8 will be at home.

"Lamar has some very talented players and an outstanding coach, and played one of their best games Thursday night against the first-place team in our conference. We hopefully will play more like we did in the last 10 minutes at Sam Houston than what we were able to get accomplished in the first 30. We've got to get back to doing all the things well that we were doing recently, until Thursday night," said 15th-year Demons coach Mike McConathy.

NSU was outrebounded for the first time in five games, and convincingly (49-39), by the Bearkats (18-6, 10-2). The Demons made 47.5 percent on 3-pointers in the win streak but sank just 3-of-16 at Sam Houston State, and had their worst shooting outing overall this season (35.9 percent, 10 percent below their average), while scoring their second-lowest total of the year.

Sophomore Jalan West still nearly made another dent in the Demon record book, narrowly missing the fifth triple-double in school history. The 5-11 point guard snagged a career-best 10 rebounds while scoring 12 points and handing out nine assists, adding four steals.

He ranks seventh in NCAA statistics in steals (2.7 average after 4 Thursday night) and eighth in assists (6.7 per game after his fifth straight game of 8 or more). West is scoring 19 points per game (55th nationally) and ranks 51st in the country with his 86.3 free throw percentage.

Senior guard Brison White continued his recent tear with a team-high 19 points at Sam Houston. He is averaging 13.9 per game, while DeQuan Hicks is at 15.7 and Zeek Woodley 13.5.

Lamar also has four starters with double-figure scoring averages, led by Nimrod Hilliard at 14.2. The Cardinals are the only Southland team with a better free throw shooting average (75.2) than the Demons' 74.1 percent.

The Demons suffered a significant injury at Sam Houston when Tyler Washington, a junior who has backed up West at point guard, was lost indefinitely after hurting his left knee in a collision.

The contest will be 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.

NSU won't play again until a visit to SFA next Saturday.