HAMMOND, La. – The Northwestern State basketball players and coaches lined up in the Stephen F. Austin visitors' locker room, and each person flushed a toilet.
 
The Demons need one more win and a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi loss to secure a Southland Conference Tournament bid, and the NSU coaching staff didn't want a 31-point loss to the Lumberjacks to hang over the Demons with three regular season games remaining.
 
NSU's (12-14, 9-8 SLC) next chance to further its postseason cause comes Saturday when the Demons head to Southeastern (6-22, 3-14 SLC) for a 4 p.m. tip.
 
Fans can catch the action on 95.9 FM Kix Country, stream the audio on nsudemons.com or the NSU mobile app, or tune in to Southeastern's YouTube video stream.
 
Even without postseason implications, the Demons shouldn't have any problem finding motivation to face the Lions after SLU erased a late NSU lead and won in overtime (84-81) in Natchitoches earlier this season.
 
"I think we'll be ready to go because we had something taken from us against Southeastern," said NSU coach Mike McConathy. "(SLU) plays a lot like SFA does, so it's almost a rerun.

"(Point guard) Von Julien had a phenomenal game against us, and we have to do the little things like defend and rebound to win this game."
 
The Demons have dropped their last two contests to Nicholls and at SFA since piecing together a four-game winning streak, the longest since 2014-15, which is also the last SLC Tournament appearance.
 
NSU held a five-point lead with two minutes remaining and a three-point edge with 25 seconds left against Southeastern before the Lions forced overtime.
 
Julien stole the ball from a Demon rebounder that would have clinched an NSU win before making a 3-pointer to tie the game.
 
The Lions quickly built an eight-point lead in overtime and hung on for the win.
 
It's the last game Southeastern has won as the Lions are mired in an eight-game losing streak. Six of those losses were by 11 points or less.
 
SLU's Ty Brewer still leads the Lions with 15 points and nearly eight rebounds per game. Pape Diop, who didn't play in the first meeting, is SLU's other top player with 11 points and five rebounds per game. Julien has an astonishing five assists per game to pair with nine points.
 
NSU junior Jairus Roberson was the Demons' leading scorer with 13 points and three made 3-pointers at SFA.

Roberson has 63 3-pointers this season, which ranks 13^th all-time in NSU single-season history and three away from the top 10. The Trinity Valley College transfer has a shot at the top five, chasing Sabri Thompson (76 makes).
 
Three-point shooting was NSU's bright spot Wednesday at SFA as the Demons made 9-of-22 to improve their percentage in SLC play to 39 percent.
 
NSU is making 36 percent overall this season, ranking 66^th nationally. That's a vast improvement from the 29 percent made this past season, which ranked well below 300^th nationally.
 
Roberson (10.6 points per game) is one eight newcomers and one of six newcomers that are among NSU's top seven scorers.
 
Junior Chudier Bile, who missed the SFA game, leads all Demons with 14 points and more than seven rebounds per game.
 
"Louisiana is a melting pot, and our team has been a melting pot of different groups of people, old players and new players," McConathy said. "We've got junior college transfers (five), some out of high school (two) and some older freshman (one).
 
"That's been the fun part, to watch these guys grow and develop and to watch this team grow. That's what the basketball season is about – working through a 20-game conference schedule to put yourself in a position to play in a conference tournament to see who goes to the NCAA Tournament."