NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State has a quick chance to put the disappointment of Wednesday's loss behind them with a three-game home stand starting on Saturday.
 
The Lady Demons (5-12, 2-6 SLC) have not reached must-win territory quite yet during the conference season but with the next three games inside Prather Coliseum it is a crucial stretch.
 
NSU takes on Southeastern Louisiana (6-11, 3-5 SLC) in a Saturday matinee to begin the home stand. Tip off of the doubleheader with the NSU men is scheduled for 1 p.m. with both games broadcast live on ESPN3 featuring Lyn Rollins on play-by-play and Jordy Hultberg providing analysis.
 
The women's game can also be heard on 92.3 FM The Fox with live streaming audio available on www.nsudemons.comor via the NSU Athletics mobile app, which is available for download from the Apple Store or Google Play.
 
"This is the most critical part of our season," fourth-year head coach Jordan Dupuy said. "We've got to have success in these next three games to get to Katy. If we don't we've dug ourselves a hole that honestly I'm not sure we can come out of.
 
"We've got to make sure we learn what we can from Wednesday, prepare the way we need to prepare and implement a game plan. There wasn't anything we saw against SFA that wasn't in our scouting report. We've got to be tougher mentally to overcome when things aren't going our way."
 
Not much went the Lady Demons' way against rival Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday night, resulting in the largest margin of defeat in a conference game. All can be forgotten however with wins in the next three games starting with the Lady Lions on Saturday.
 
"They play extremely hard and physical with a lot of emotion," Dupuy said. "They're going to be fired up after their win on Wednesday and play even harder and even more physical. It's going to be the things that don't show up on the stat sheet that win these kinds of conference games."
 
Southeastern falls in the middle of the pack on both sides of the floor in the conference, but one stat that does appear on the stat sheet they excel in is making free throws.
 
The Lady Lions shoot a conference-best 75 percent from the line, using their physical style to get to the line and one of their strengths.
 
"We struggled with their physicality in the game down there last year and only put up 14 points in the first half," Dupuy said. "But we got the game into overtime and beat them there.
"That was a tale of two halves and what won that game for us had nothing to do with scheme. We implemented our game plan in the second half and it was their mentality towards it that was the difference."
 
Mental toughness will be key for the Lady Demons after a tough loss with three important games in front of them starting with Saturday afternoon.
 
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