NATCHITOCHES – Comparing stat sheets, Northwestern State and preseason Southland Conference basketball favorite Sam Houston State look a lot alike.
 
Neither team has a dominant scorer, relying instead on an ensemble approach. The team shooting and rebounding averages are similar and the scoring averages nearly identical.
 
But the Bearkats (12-6 overall, 3-2 Southland) are the preseason conference favorite, and the Demons (7-8, 1-3) are trying to climb into a wide-open scramble early in the 18-game Southland season.
 
Both teams are coming off close wins. While NSU overcame a 13-point second-half deficit behind Sabri Thompson's 38-point explosion to topple visiting Nicholls 86-81 Thursday night, Sam Houston held off New Orleans 70-68 on the road to wipe out the league's last unbeaten record.
 
The Demons and Bearkats collide Saturday afternoon at 3:32 in Prather Coliseum in the second half of a Southland doubleheader opening with a 1 p.m. women's contest. It's the last NSU homecourt appearance this month. Both games will be carried on ESPN3.
 
"We've got a tough match with Sam Houston," said 18^th-year NSU coach Mike McConathy. "They are the team everybody's talking about around our conference. They were picked to win it for good reasons. They're well coached, they're deep, they're talented, they're tough."
 
The Demons showed plenty of toughness in notching their first league win, against a Nicholls team that was out to a quick start and had a season-opening upset of Boston College.
 
Thompson's 38-point performance was the sixth-best single-game outing in more than a century of NSU basketball. It was his second consecutive big night, coming on the heels of a 23-point outing (21 after halftime) last Saturday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. A career 38-percent 3-point shooter, he went through two skids, one in the first two league games when he was just 1 of 10 behind the arc, but he's made 12 of his last 25 since.
 
"I know I can make those shots," he said. "I was putting too much pressure on myself. I just needed to relax and just play. My teammates did a great job of finding me in good positions."
 
As for the Demons, who have shown a propensity for falling behind by double figures, then rallying, Thompson said Thursday's win was a confidence builder for a squad that was one play away from winning its first two conference games.
 
"We need to keep the intensity, start better, and finish every game," he said.
 
Thompson is NSU's leading active scorer overall (12.0) and his Southland average soared to 19.8. Tra'von Joseph, who had his sixth career double-double against Nicholls, has an 8.1 scoring average and a team-best 6.3 rebounding rate. In league play, he's scoring 12.8 per game.
 
Overall, NSU has five players scoring between 12 and 8.1 points, while SHSU has five getting between 10.4 (Dakarai Henderson) and 8.2 per game.
 
The contest will be carried on the Demon Sports Network, flagshipped by 100.7 FM KZBL in Natchitoches and including 92.1 KSYR FM in Shreveport and 103.1 FM KWLA in Sabine Parish.
 
NSU will begin a string of four consecutive road games next Saturday at McNeese. The Demons don't play at home again until Feb. 4 against Stephen F. Austin, the first of six home games in the last nine regular-season outings.