NATCHITOCHES -- After snapping a four-game skid Saturday with a win against Southern, the Northwestern State men's basketball will attempt to start a new kind of streak Tuesday when Louisiana College visits Prather Coliseum.
 
The 6:30 p.m. contest will be broadcast on the Demon Sports Network with Patrick Netherton handling play-by-play duties. The game will also be streamed via nsudemons.com.
 
NSU (3-8) overcame an 11-point deficit at halftime to top Southern, 69-66, particularly with staunch defense and timely buckets.
 
Senior LaTerrance Reed scored a career-high 17 points with four 3-pointers and three free-throws coming on a fouled 3-point attempt.
 
Sophomore point guard C.J. Jones scored nine of his 15 points from the line as he settled an offense that committed 12 first-half turnovers but just two in the second half.
 
"I don't think there's any doubt about it, we played well in the second halves of the last three games against Texas A&M, Texas Tech and now Southern," McConathy said. "Southern is as talented as anybody we've played, and I'm really pleased with the way we played and the tenacity we showed.
 
"Guys getting on the floor, guys taking charges -- it all factored into the energy in the second half. We'll need similar energy when we play a talented Louisiana College team."
 
NSU will attempt to log its third win against an in-state opponent after beating Centenary to open the season and Southern on Saturday.
 
Louisiana College is one of NSU's oldest rivals as the Demons hold a 119-37 series edge.
 
NSU is playing LC for the six straight season, winning four of the last five contests by at least 25 points. The Demons beat the Wildcats 88-58 in Alexandria this past season. The Wildcats came close in 2015-16 in an 86-80 Demons win.
 
"Coach Reni Mason is a really good basketball coach, but more importantly, he's a really good man," McConathy said. "I have so much respect for him and how hard he works and how he gets his players to play hard.
 
"They've got really good speed, and their (small) size will present an issue because we'll be guarding down, kind of like we had to do against Southern."
 
The last time LC won a game in this series came in 1982-83 when the Wildcats took a 84-72 result in Pineville.
 
The Wildcats have been a group of road warriors this season, posting a 7-1 record with all games being away or at a neutral site.
 
LC is on a seven-game winning streak against NCAA Division III opponents after a two-point loss to Birmingham Southern in the opener.
 
The Wildcats challenged Southeastern in an 86-71 loss in Hammond on Nov. 29 in the Wildcats' lone matchup against a Division I foe.
 
Senior forward Devon Washington supplied 17 points and nine rebounds against the Lions, besting his season averages of 16.5 points and eight rebounds this season.
 
"Washington is really talented on the inside," McConathy said. "This is a game where we possibly were talking to some of these kids but we didn't have the scholarships.
 
"Now you're playing against them, and it creates a difficult time because they want to show you that we should have taken them. It's happened time and time again because of the numbers crunch."
 
Three other Wildcats average double figures.
 
For NSU, senior Ishmael Lane (11.7) is the only double-digits scorer, but seven other players average at least five points per game.
 
Eleven different players are averaging double-digit minutes, providing McConathy depth that will be beneficial as the Demons enter a part of the schedule in which the talent is comparable.
 
"Coach Leon Johnson said it best when he said we're in good shape and we're rested, and to be rested at this point physically is not a bad thing," McConathy said. "Our staff has done an excellent job of saying to back off a little bit in practice because it's more important to be effective for the game.
 
"It's not that we aren't practicing hard, but we're being a little bit wiser in practice in identifying what we do well and what we don't do well."