Demon Basketball | 11/18/2018 6:20:00 PM

HOUSTON – In the early stages of the 2018-19 basketball season, Northwestern State veteran coach Mike McConathy hasn't had the same players available in two straight games, until Monday night.

That will be timely, considering the Demons are facing their most formidable foe to date, the 2-0 Houston Cougars, coming off a 2018 NCAA Tournament berth.

The 7 p.m. NSU-UH contest, part of the Men Against Breast Cancer Cougar Cup series, is being played at the H&PE Arena at nearby Texas Southern University rather than Houston's storied Hofheinz Pavilion, which is in the final stages of renovation.

The Demons (1-3) are also in a construction mode as McConathy and staff are piecing together combinations hoping for extended stretches of quality minutes. Some bursts have come at each stop in the current three-game skid at SMU, BYU and Rice.

Saturday, NSU used pressure defense and solid shooting to overcome a 27-17 deficit into a 33-32 lead at Rice, but faltered after halftime, with the Owls sinking 13 of their first 16 shots to explode away from a 39-37 lead for a 102-74 victory.

Houston put away its inner-city foes 79-68 on Wednesday night after opening its season with a blowout of Alabama A&M. The Cougars are hitting 48 percent of their 3-pointers and 53 percent overall, led by Armoni Brooks' 22-point scoring average and a 20-point rate from Corey Davis Jr.

NSU gets 16.5 points and 7.8 rebounds from senior center Ishmael Lane. In his first game of the season Saturday, senior guard DeAndre Love scored 16 in 21 minutes.

"We got three guys back (at Rice; Love, junior forwards Brandon Hutton and Jacob Guest, who combined for 33 points) who can help us, but maybe having them out there hurt our cohesiveness defensively in the short-term," said McConathy. "Not putting that on them, but it's a process and not an overnight fix. We will need to be better every time out and especially against Houston on Monday night."

The Demons will wrap up a string of road games against UH. NSU is home Friday night against Alabama A&M at 6:30 in Prather Coliseum, and hosts UL Monroe the following Tuesday night.