NATCHITOCHES -- The scream of students and the blast of brass hasn't been something the Northwestern State basketball team experienced much this calendar year as the Demons played five of their first seven Southland Conference games away from home.
 
But Prather Coliseum revved into midseason form this past Wednesday, particularly when the Demons were erasing a 15-point Stephen F. Austin lead in an eventual 69-62 loss.
 
NSU (7-10, 4-4 SLC) hopes to provide a similar environment Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana (5-14, 2-6 SLC) as the Demons play in the Southland Conference Game of the Week in a 3:30 p.m. contest that will be broadcast on ESPN3.
 
Fans can also access NSU play-by-play announcer Patrick Netherton's call of the action on 95.9 FM Kix Country, at nsudemons.com and on the NSU mobile app.
 
NSU and the Natchitoches Regional Medical Center will be honoring local first responders at the doubleheader. Free tickets are being distributed to police, fire and EMT personnel, and those professionals will receive a free T-shirt and be treated to a free meal between games.
 
"This is another great opportunity for us at home and the great core group of townspeople that we have," said NSU coach Mike McConathy after 1,524 fans brought energy Wednesday. "We garnered support from the student body and some additional folks, and with school back in session, we hope we can do that again.
 
"Southeastern is a dangerous team that will be looking for a win, and we are still learning to become a team that can string wins together. We've got to continue to grow and do the little things to be successful."
 
Junior Chudier Bile scored a career-high 26 points against the Lumberjacks, boosting his team-best scoring average to 13.6 points per game and 15 points in SLC play.
 
Bile put together three straight double doubles before just missing another Wednesday with nine rebounds.

"It's going to be good to get another game at home after playing on the road most of the time to start the year," said Bile, whose Demons will play consecutive home games in SLC play for the first time this season. "We've got to come out better and can't have that slow start (SFA led 23-6 on Wednesday).
 
"But we're looking forward to getting another home game so we can get (Wednesday) out of our system. We proved to ourselves that we can compete with the best in the conference."
 
The Demons have not had recent success against SLU as the Lions have won the past five meetings in the series, including the last three games in Prather Coliseum.
 
But the Lions have struggled somewhat in coach David Kiefer's first season, dropping four of its last five games. It's two league wins have come against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who did beat NSU in Texas this season.
 
Sophomore Ty Brewer leads SLU in scoring (15.6), rebounding (7.8) and in blocks and steals.
 
But the Lions offense overall has struggled, averaging 66 points while shooting under 41 percent from the field.
 
NSU counters with the league's best field goal percentage defense (.401), which included holding an SFA squad that shoots near 50 percent to 35 percent from the floor Wednesday.
 
Sophomore point guard Brian White returned to action Wednesday after missing the previous three games. White was key in NSU's second-half comeback, scoring all eight of his points in that span.
 
"Brian did a great job in his first game back, and he was a little bit of an answer because of his strength," McConathy said of the Natchitoches native. "He split the defense and was able to get to the bucket.
 
"(Junior point guard) C.J. Jones made good plays, too, but Brian got on a roll, and we could see he was feeling it and feeding off the home energy. He was glad to be on the floor and back playing."