HAMMOND – The afternoon the lights went out in Hammond on Leap Day 2020.

A one-hour-and-45-minute delay because of a power outage in Southeastern's University Center due to a malfunctioning transformer on campus.

Northwestern State erased a 21-point deficit Saturday, but Southeastern made enough crucial plays in the final minutes to hand the Demons a 95-92 loss.

NSU (12-15, 9-9 Southland Conference) outrebounded SLU (7-22, 4-14 SLC) in the game, but the Lions grabbed three offensive rebounds with a minute left, finally cashing in a Ty Brewer layup.

SLU took a one-point lead it didn't relinquish as the Lions recovered from NSU's furious comebacks.

"It's crazy how little plays made the difference, like their bucket at the first-half buzzer," said NSU coach Mike McConathy. "They got three offensive rebounds on that possession with a minute left, and they were just more physical than us.

"We weren't tough enough. It's a tough matchup for us because of the way they play, and it created problems for us as they beat us for the second time this season."

Down 10 points with 7:32 remaining, the Demons mounted their final push behind a 10-0 run, including five points from Jairus Roberson.

Roberson scored a team-high 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including five 3-pointers. The junior transfer has made 68 3-pointers, which vaults him into seventh place on NSU's single-season chart.

But for an NSU team that has built its improvement on its defense (leads the league with 40 percent allowed from the floor), an SLU squad that ranked 12^th in the league in shooting made 55 percent of its attempts.

The Lions drilled 10 3-pointers, including 6-of-11 from Brandon Gonzalez en route to a game-high 25 points.

Gonzalez made five 3-pointers before the power outage with in the first 13 minutes, propelling SLU to a 36-19 edge before the delay.

SLU stretched its lead to 21 points as the Lions kept the momentum once the lights returned, but both teams shot lights out for the remainder of the game.

"I felt like the dark was a great thing for us," McConathy said. "We came out, and a guy like Larry Owens played his best basketball in that first seven minutes, and we got a spark.

"We just wanted to get the lead down to a certain amount to give ourselves a chance, and we did that. I'm proud of the way we came back, and we got a lot of good play from a lot of guys."

NSU ended the half on a 21-7 run to chisel the gargantuan SLU lead to 47-40. The run was triggered by a pair of dunks from Trenton Massner and five points from Larry Owens, including a dunk.

Massner scored 17 points and wasn't far from a triple-double, logging a career-high eight assists with eight rebounds.

Nikos Chougkaz joined Roberson and Massner in double figures with 11 points, his first such performance in five games.

The Demons completely erased the SLU lead by starting the second half on an 12-4 run, which included two Roberson 3-pointers, to go up 52-51.

"We played great transition basketball, and we moved and passed it well," McConathy said. "But SLU got early confidence in its own offense, and they filled it up.

"We tried to make our guys understand which opponents can do what, but guys like Maxwell Starwood and Nick Caldwell killed us."

The game featured a total of eight ties and four lead changes as the teams battled in a physical contest.

NSU won key categories like points off turnovers (21-6), second-chance points (19-17) and points in the paint (52-38 )largely created by transition opportunities and dribble penetration.

But the Demons ultimately couldn't overcome SLU's hot shooting.

Joining Gonzalez in double figures included Ty Brewer (18 points, 13 rebounds), Maxwell Starwood (15 points in 12 minutes) and Nick Caldwell (10 points).

With two regular season games remaining, NSU is still hunting for its first SLC Tournament bid since 2014-15.

The Demons are in a three-way tie for sixth place with Central Arkansas (9-9 SLC) and McNeese (9-9 SLC). To clinch a spot, NSU needs one win and a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi loss.

NSU has lost three straight and plays its home finale Wednesday against UNO (4-14 SLC) before finishing at Central Arkansas on Saturday.