NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State enters the final stretch of the regular season on Thursday against Nicholls. With three straight home games, and signs of more on-the-court familiarity already showing, the Lady Demons hope this could be a springboard into March.
 
After a difficult overtime loss on Thursday at UIW, the Lady Demons (10-12, 3-8) nearly knocked the current top seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi from its pedestal on Saturday. While it ended in a 10-point margin, the three-point game with three minutes to go was much more indicative of how the afternoon played out.
 
With some recent changes to the starting lineup, and the return of players that had missed more than 10 games this season due to injuries, the performance against the Islanders was one of the first true looks at what NSU women's basketball could look like under head coach Anna Nimz.
 
"We're starting to get a glimpse of seeing our bigger body kids get extra rest in with some of our guards that have been playing more than 30 minutes a game," the second-year head coach said about the positive takeaways from Saturday's game. "Just the ability to get more into our bench and having more of a team effort. What's exciting about Saturday is that with everybody involved, we were really close to that No. 1 seed, playing them to a really tight game. They played within their team and it's just an overall feeling of this team is coming together."
 
Looking to see more on-court chemistry develop, NSU hosts Nicholls (4-17, 2-8) on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. in the annual Fork Cancer game. 
 
Donations will be taken throughout the game, and during the men's game that follows, in an effort to raise money for cancer research and support St. Jude Children's Hospital. Fans can make their contribution in person or text ForkCancer (all one word) to 41444 any time.
 
The game can be seen on www.nsudemons.com/watch with free streaming audio also available on the NSU Athletics mobile app and on 95.9 FM Kix Country.
 
NSU sits in the sixth position in the bracket entering the penultimate week of the regular season, with still a chance to potentially grab the four spot and a first-round bye in the tournament if they are able to win the final three games. They will need some help along the way, and as they have done all season are looking ahead to the next game on the schedule, but the potential that is brewing late in the season has Nimz taking quick glances at the road a little further ahead.
 
"For the longest time we've been trying to figure out, is this team going to be able to mature and come together and create the program that we want," she said. "The answer is yes. We've got some great program kids; we've got kids that are buying in and we've got kids that are getting used to each other on the court.  So it's exciting to see, not just for the next couple of games, but it's good on the heart to be able to look down the road a bit and think that you've got some really nice pieces to the puzzle."
The Lady Demons rose to the challenge in the first meeting with Nicholls, picking up a 68-64 win in Thibodaux, thanks to some clutch shots from Jordan Todd and Candice Parramore down the stretch.
 
"We're excited that we were able to get those wins against Nicholls and New Orleans earlier in the season, but every single team has only gotten better since then," Nimz said. "As you can tell in the Southland, it's anyone's game on any given night. We just have to focus on us, keep our head down and do the work."
 
Todd has put in plenty of work for NSU this season and it has really begun to pay off in the past few games.  Against Corpus she picked up her second double-double in three games (11 points, 10 rebounds), her sixth of the season and now leads the Southland with a .557 field goal percentage. In league games alone this year she is shooting a hair under 60 percent from the field. Over the past three games, Todd has made an astounding 21-of-28 (.750) of her attempts from the floor.
 
She is within striking distance of the first 200-point, 200-rebound season for NSU since Cheyenne Brown did so five years ago. Todd needs seven points and 16 rebounds to reach the mark.