NEW ORLEANS – Northwestern State has the opportunity to make a big move starting Wednesday if they can reproduce the second half of Saturday's game at Southeastern La.
 
The Lady Demons (0-10, 0-5 SLC) takes on New Orleans on Wednesday night where the winner moves into the race for the Southland Conference tournament as they near the midway point of the league schedule.
 
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at UNO's Lakefront Arena. The game will be broadcast on 92.3 FM in Natchitoches with live streaming audio available on www.nsudemons.com or the NSU Athletics Mobile App, a free download in the Apple or Google stores.
 
A simple change in the overall effort was the difference for the Lady Demons between the first and second half results against Southeastern. While the blistering shooting percentage by the Lady Lions ultimately put the game out of reach after the first 20 minutes, the Lady Demons, as they have done all year, continued to battle and played a much better second 20 minutes.
 
"Effort, energy and being focused in on what we were trying to accomplish," first-year head coach Anna Nimz said. "That really was the biggest different from the first half to the second. I told them you're going to mess up and I'm going to be ok with that, that's just part of it, but just go hard. If you're doing that and giving your best that's all anybody can ask of you.
 
"We won the third quarter and competed well in the fourth and lost the half by five. But we didn't all of the sudden become superstars in the second half we just worked harder. That's something with the program and these young ladies that we're continuing to harp on – effort wins out."
 
One player that has exemplified the effort that Nimz has asked of her team is freshman Osha Cummings. Coming off the best game of her young career, playing the full 40 minutes and filling the stat sheet with 14 points, four rebounds, and assist and a steal, the work she's put in outside of practice has paid huge dividends.
 
"She's coachable and in the gym and working hard on being better," Nimz said. "She takes what you say, never too high or too low with it, and goes and does it. How she's gotten better is because of that. I was super excited to really see it come to fruition for her on Saturday, because she does work so hard it doesn't always translate in the stats like it did then."
 
The Lady Demons are still searching for there first game with full effort from start to finish, which Nimz believes will bring them their first win. The Privateers (3-7, 0-4 SLC) are also searching for their first conference win of the season, setting up a key game on Wednesday night.
 
The teams are similar in a multitude of ways including a key stat that has contributed to their winless conference records – turnovers. Both teams are averaging more than 21 turnovers per game, among the most in the Southland.
NSU has shown more frequently of late what they are capable of when things come together how they're intended. With the first of two key games to finish a long and taxing month on the road, a win at New Orleans could be the thing that tips the scale to the opposite side.
 
"Nobody likes to lose," Nimz said. "But you can chose to be miserable in that or you can chose to work hard to get out of that. We're trying to encourage the girls that even though we're 0-5 there are two other teams that have similar records. You go get one win and you bump up and if the season ended that day you're in the conference tournament. That's how you have to look at it.
 
"Sometimes it just takes one. I've been telling them the whole time I'm waiting for that 'ah-ha' moment. That moment when you put 40 minutes of –  not perfection – but 40 minutes of just effort, the best of your ability, I genuinely believer their best ability will get us a win."