HOUSTON – Northwestern State's basketball team looked speedy and sharp in its opener Nov. 6, but since then a short bench has plagued the Demons in road losses at SMU and BYU.

Saturday afternoon at 2, against Rice, coach Mike McConathy is looking forward to adding more depth as veterans Brandon Hutton, DeAndre Love and Jacob Guest will make their 2018-19 debuts. The Demons will play their third game in the Men Against Breast Cancer Cougar Cup series Monday night against Houston.

NSU (1-2) and Rice (2-2) meet for the third straight season. The Owls claimed the last two contests.

After having only nine players able to play at SMU (a 69-58 loss), and 10 on Tuesday at BYU (an 82-57 Cougars win), McConathy will have a dozen Demons to use Saturday. Senior forward Malik Metoyer is out with illness and freshman point guard Brian White hasn't played yet due to an ankle sprain, but adding three sets of fresh legs, all veterans, encourages the 20^th-year NSU coach.

"We have numbers enough to be more flexible in our substitution pattern, based on how hard we play. If we're not playing hard enough, then we can bring in fresh legs and a better approach," he said. "I'm hopeful we'll have the energy level we had in our opener when we had 10 healthy guys together. There was a great group synergy.

"If we can rekindle that, we will get up the floor, do the things we like to do, run and press. We did that at BYU until the last 5-6 minutes of the first half, but we faded with a short rotation. Getting more players available should really benefit us," said McConathy.

The Demons rely on senior forward/center Ishmael Lane, averaging 19 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. Junior transfer guard John Norvel is scoring 11.7 per game, making 8 of his 15 3-point tries, and sophomore center Larry Owens has produced 10.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest.

Norvel hasn't played since high school, overcoming a knee injury in his freshman season at his previous school. He's been a pleasant surprise for NSU.

"He's athletic, he really understands the game, and he's shot it well from distance," said McConathy. "He's been playing the point out of necessity but when we get Brian White back, I think John will be a nice piece for us on the wing."

The Demons are hitting 39 percent of their 3-point tries, 12 percentage points better than last season, and Love and Guest will bolster the team's perimeter threats.

Rice, a 79-68 loser at Houston Wednesday night, is sinking 47 percent of its shots overall, including 58 percent inside the 3-point arc. The Owels have hit 35 percent on treys.

Ako Adams leads four double-digit scorers with a 16-point average and has drained half his 26 tries behind the arc.

The game will be broadcast on the Demon Sports Network's flagship station, 100.7 FM KZBL in Natchitoches, and is available free on the NSUDemons.com website and the Northwestern State Demons app.