NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State women's basketball continues to find the small victories through what has been a challenging season.

 

In their most recent outing, the Lady Demons (0-13, 0-8) displayed one of their best defensive stretches of the season as a result of the effort from three players in particular – Alexia Marsh, Andreea Cojocariu and Julia Sion.

 

"Proud of our positive spurts and positive glimpses that we had," first-year head coach Anna Nimz said. "That second group out of halftime really did a good job. Anytime you can hold someone to two points and a handful of minutes go by that's excellent. 

 

"Problem is if you're being held to one point it negates itself. Positives there but we're at a point in the season where small victories should be adding up and we're just not coming out of the gate strong."

 

The Lady Demons have a chance to build on the defensive success, and hopefully find a more consistent offense, in their second of four straight home conference games Wednesday night.

 

After have the road game postponed twice during the month of January, NSU and UIW finally meet on the court beginning at 6:30 p.m. inside Prather Coliseum. The game can be heard locally on 92.3 FM with subscription video and free audio streams available on www.nsudemons.com or through the NSU Athletics mobile app, a free download in either the Apple or Google stores.

 

For over six minutes to start the second half against Houston Baptist the NSU defense was in lock-down mode. It gave up just two points on six attempts forcing eight turnovers during that stretch. The Lady Demons had a prime chance to work back from the 14-point halftime deficit, but the stout defense did not translate to the other end of the floor.

 

On a night where they shot 22 percent from the field for the game, the 0-for-8 slump kept the margin the same and allowed HBU to eventually pull away for the big win in the fourth quarter.

 

Marsh, Cojocariu and Sion where key parts of the game throughout, each having some of their best performance of the season in the game. Cojocariu pulled down a season-best seven rebounds while Marsh added five more, including four on the offensive glass.

 

"I really hope that's going to be a building point for them," Nimz said. "We've had some kids have some stellar games and then fall off the next game. I'm hoping for those three young ladies in particular that gave them a little more confidence to continue to go out and work hard."

 

The Lady Demons look to carry that effort into their first meeting with the Cardinals (3-4, 1-1) who played just their second conference game of the season Monday night, a 66-47 win at McNeese.

 

UIW has had 11 games canceled or postponed due to COVID-19 and will play a total of 10 games in 27 days during the month of February.

 

In limited action the Cardinals have shown their ability to defend the 3-point line, holding opponents to 25 percent shooting from beyond the arc while only shooting 25 percent on the offensive side.

 

Scouting an opponent with a limited number of games is always a challenge for a team and coaching staff, but for NSU the primary focus remains on improvements within.

 

"We're really not focused a lot on other teams right now in terms of scout," Nimz said. "I think we've really got to stay in house and focus on us and figure out what it's going to take to start putting together 40 minutes of, not perfect basketball, but overall effort. They're trying and huffing and puffing but it's got to be productive effort, passion and energy."