NATCHITOCHES – The first two games of Northwestern State's season-long, three-game women's basketball homestand came against the upper echelon of the Southland Conference.
 
Thursday's finale of that three-game run pits the Lady Demons against an opponent who has experienced a much different season.
 
After consecutive losses against the top two teams in the league – Lamar and Stephen F. Austin – Northwestern State (8-16, 3-11) caps its home run with a 6:30 p.m. Thursday tip against Houston Baptist (7-15, 2-10) inside Prather Coliseum.
 
Thursday's game can be heard on 97.5 KDBH and on the Demon Sports Network. Streaming audio and video are available on www.NSUDemons.com/watch and the new Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded through the Apple Store or Google Play. Patrick Netherton will handle the play-by-play call of the game.
 
"We're going to have the same approach from a coaching standpoint, a scouting report standpoint, a scheme standpoint, whether it's Lamar or SFA or Houston Baptist or Incarnate Word," third-year head coach Jordan Dupuy said. "If our demeanor doesn't change, our preparation doesn't change, then the team keeps the same mentality as far as their preparation is concerned.
 
"This game is a must win. Every game we have left is a must win if we want to play in Katy."
 
Northwestern State enters Thursday's matchup two games out of eighth place in the Southland Conference. The top eight teams advance to the SLC Tournament in Katy, Texas, from March 14-17.
 
Thursday's matchup also comes with an extra day of rest for both the Lady Demons and the Huskies as the game was moved back one day because of the LSU-Northwestern State baseball game that originally was scheduled for Feb. 20 at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
That game was rained out, but Dupuy said he expects the benefits of the extra day of rest.
 
"Having that extra day of preparation was big," Dupuy said. "It allowed us to not get the girls up early Monday morning to lift. We were able to let them lift in the afternoon. There's an extra day to rest and change up our schedule, an extra day to get our legs underneath us."
 
With only one game this week – Northwestern State's lone open Saturday in league play comes in three days – the Lady Demons could focus simply on the Huskies, who fell to Nicholls, 58-55, on Saturday.
 
Houston Baptist leads the Southland Conference in blocked shots per game, rejecting an average of 5 per game. Veronica Kirienko leads the Huskies and ranks sixth in the conference with 1.1 blocks per game.
 
Offensively, preseason second-team All-Southland Conference selection Amanda Johnson leads Houston Baptist in scoring, averaging 13.1 points per game, and paces the conference 3-point shooting (44.6 percent), a mark that ranks 16^th nationally.
 
"We have to combat their size down low," Dupuy said. "They have a good point guard (Megan Valdez-Crader) who creates tempo for them. They do a good job playing man-to-man defense. They've played some of the top teams in the conference close. It's going to be a tough game. We have to prepare the right way to come out on top."
 
In the past four games, Northwestern State has placed at least three players in double figures in scoring, highlighted by five crossing the 10-point plateau in an 89-73 win at McNeese on Feb. 9.
 
The more balanced Lady Demons have averaged 74.8 points per game in that stretch, six points per game better than their season average.
 
"It's good to spread out the scoring, but there is still a lot of scoring left out there," Dupuy said. "Our system allows (balanced scoring) to happen. Anybody can be the leading scorer. Anybody can be a scoring threat. It's a system where defense leads to scoring. When we're at our best, we're scoring in all three of those aspects."