NATCHITOCHES – Belief is a powerful thing. More importantly, belief in one's self can go a long way in creating success that everyone strives towards. For the Northwestern State women that belief in themselves and their teammates has begun to take hold.
 
The Lady Demons (11-12, 4-8) put that belief on full display in Thursday's 73-60 win against Nicholls. Five players scored in double figures, for the first time in three years, NSU outrebounded an opponent by 20 for the first time in five years and three different players had four or more assists.
 
The win gave NSU its first season sweep of Nicholls in 11 years and continued the progression that truly became evident in Corpus Christi, Texas, a week ago.
 
"I think fans are starting to see what we're working towards," head coach Anna Nimz said. "I think you can get behind this team; I think you can get excited about this team and it's slowly but surely coming together."
 
NSU carries the win into Saturday looking to complete another season sweep as New Orleans (2-16, 1-10) comes to Prather Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. with senior day presentations for Monette Bolden and JaMiya Braxton prior to the game.
 
Live video will be available at www.nsudemons.com/watch with free streaming audio also found on the NSU Athletics mobile app or heard locally on 95.9 FM Kix Country.
 
After failing to see good shots and often open looks fail to go through the basket in their first three conference home games, the Lady Demons have been a nearly completely different team in the past two.
 
The back-to-back home games shooting better than 50 percent from the field are the best two field goal percentages of the season for the Lady Demons. The looks that were there in the first three game have been the looks that were there in the last two, the difference boils down to one thing – belief.
 
"I'm happy that the girls are really believing in themselves," Nimz said. "That's been the number one game key probably for the last seven games – believe in your ability, trust in your teammates. We always follow it up with, we (the coaches) believe in you. 
 
"At the end of the day what you feel about yourself is more important than what anybody else feels about you. The more positive talk you can have to back up the work you put in to have confidence in yourself, that's when you have an opportunity for success. I think the girls are really buying into that."
 
The addition of a healthy Sharna Ayres and Alecia Whyte and gradual increase in playing time and general familiarity with their teammates on the floor cannot be overstated as well. Both have produced career-high totals in the past three games with, and both part of the five to score in double figures against Nicholls.
 
The stalwarts of Candice Parramore, Monette Bolden and Jordan Todd now have a deeper bench, more rotation from it and, according to Nimz, perhaps less pressure because of it.
 
"When you do your job so well, you create opportunities for others," she said. "Now it's about you believe in yourself, you do your job and create those opportunities, and it's time for you to trust in your teammates. I think that's starting to sink in. 
 
"I think a couple of them felt like they had to put the weight of the team on their shoulders because we were down in numbers. Now that we're able to play a little more into our bench there was a sigh of relief there and they play through each other more."