HOUSTON – The long road trip continues for Northwestern State on Saturday with a trip to Houston and a date with, for the first time this season, a familiar opponent.

The Lady Demons (5-16, 2-10 SLC) look for their second win of the season against a Houston Baptist (5-15, 1-10 SLC) team they knocked off in early January 69-60 in Prather Coliseum.

"Just because we beat them the first time doesn't mean we're going to go in there and have an easy win," interim head coach Aaron Swinson said. "This team is dangerous just like any other team that we're going to play. We need to go out and play hard, play together, have fun and learn something from the games we've played already."

Tony Taglavore will have the call live beginning at 2 p.m. from Sharp Gym in Houston and can be heard on 92.3 FM The Fox. Live streaming audio is also available on www.nsudemons.com or via the NSU Athletics mobile app, which is available for download from the Apple Store or Google Play.

NSU played one of if not the best half of the season on Wednesday at Abilene Christian. A season low in turnovers and fouls committed kept the Lady Demons in contention throughout much of the game against the Southland Conference's top-rated offense.

With the dip in turnovers and fouls it's no surprise the Lady Demons reached their second highest point total of the season with three players reaching double figures on the night.

Although the weather in Abilene forced the game time up two and a half hours, Swinson said the Lady Demons had a focus going into the game that could have easily slipped away due to the circumstances, all due to the work prior to tip off.

"We have less distractions when we're on the road," Swinson said. "Hopefully that fact carries over here. They played really well in practice and preparation for this past game and they did that again for the one Saturday.

"We just want to make sure we carry over the things we've been working on from a defensive standpoint. On the offensive side we've implemented some new things, some new schemes and hopefully they'll buy in to it."

In a game of runs the first time around, the Lady Demon defense clamped down on the Huskies, forcing them to a 2-for-12 effort from the field in the fourth quarter and to shoot 37 percent for the game, pulling out the first conference win of the season.

That was then and now HBU has seemingly turned a corner offensively shooting better than 40 percent from the field and 60 percent from the line in five of the last six game. They pushed two of the top five team in the league to the limit the past two times out.

"It's hard to beat a team twice," Swinson said. "They missed a lot of shots and free throws in that first game.

"We've got to do a better job of defending without fouling. That's one thing that we talk about everyday and we have to have that approach in the hopes that we can get a good defensive stop and go down and score in transition or in our half court set."

Scoring was not a problem for Kira Bonner against HBU. She had a career-high 32 points against the Huskies going 10-for-20 from the field, 4-of-6 from deep and 8-for-10 from the line, cementing herself as NSU's top offensive threat.

It was the first of seven-straight double-figure scoring games for the senior from Mississippi, including a second 30-point effort in a loss to Southeastern Louisiana.
With more than a month between the two meetings, both teams are far different but seemingly both trending with an upward trajectory.

"The biggest change that we want to make from that first game is that we play harder," Swinson said. "We want them to give everything they have and leave it all our on the court.

"We're going to make mistakes, and they will too, but I think it's what team is going to overcome those mistakes and not make them repeatedly. It's not going to be an easy win for either team but at the end of the day we want to build on what we had in the last game."

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