STARKVILLE, Mississippi – The Northwestern State women's basketball team is no stranger to challenging road games.
 
In the past two seasons, the Lady Demons have faced a total of three top-five teams during the regular season.
 
They will add to that list Wednesday night as they face No. 5 Mississippi State at 7 p.m. inside Humphrey Coliseum, doing so after an eight-day break following a 113-65 win against Louisiana College on Dec. 20.
 
Northwestern State (6-4) faced No. 3 Texas and No. 5 Texas A&M during the 2014-15 season and faced No. 4 Baylor in the 2015-16 season.
 
"This will be our toughest opponent all year," first-year head coach Jordan Dupuy said. "It's tough also preparing for a game like this after a long break, because you have to knock off a lot of rust, work on conditioning, work on your system and put in a game plan all in two practices."
 
Mississippi State (13-0) marks the second ranked opponent for the Lady Demons this season. Northwestern State fell to then-No. 14 Texas, 86-39, on Nov. 23.
 
Wednesday's matchup will be the final non-conference game of the season for Northwestern State, which is guaranteed to have a winning record entering Southland Conference play for the second straight season.
 
It also marks the second straight road trip to a Southeastern Conference opponent, following a Dec. 18 jaunt to Arkansas.
 
"This is definitely a tough challenge for us leading into conference," Dupuy said. "I'm looking for this team to come out and compete, ready to execute a game plan, take what we have learned from other road trips and apply it and be mentally tough for 40 minutes."
 
Wednesday's game features two of the top scorers in the Southland Conference and the SEC. Northwestern State's Beatrice Attura ranks second in the Southland in scoring at 18.2 points per game and has reached double figures in each of the Lady Demons' first 10 games.
 
In the win against Louisiana College, Attura finished with a game-high 19 points and surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career.
 
Mississippi State's 6-foot-1 forward Victoria Vivians, a two-time honorable mention All-American, ranks 12^th in the SEC in scoring at 15.8 points per game.
 
Dupuy's near decade as an assistant at Southern Miss left him plenty familiar with Vivians.
 
"I have watched Victoria since she was an eighth-grader," Dupuy said. "She's always been a tremendous scorer and will definitely be a tough matchup for us. We just have to keep her in front and contest her on every shot."
 
Wednesday's game can be heard on 97.5 FM KDBH and via free streaming audio on www.nsudemons.com. Tony Taglavore, in his ninth season, will deliver the play-by-play call of the game.