NATCHITOCHES – After a key win on the shoulders of a lock down defensive performance, Northwestern State will look to back that up on Saturday when it hosts Lamar.
 
A near historic defensive performance for the Lady Demons (8-10, 4-4) where they held HCU to a 26 percent shooting effort from the field, the lowest by a Division I opponent in more than 10 years, provided a major boost of confidence following two straight road losses.
 
NSU will look to turn that confidence into two straight home wins on Saturday when Lamar (10-9, 4-4) makes its way to Natchitoches for the first time since the 2018-19 season. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
 
The game features two of the best perimeter teams in the Southland Conference.
 
NSU and Lamar rank one and two in the league in both 3-point shooting percentage and 3-point defense. Both teams are converting on 35 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc while the Cardinals are holding opponents to a league-best 26 percent effort on the defensive side. The Lady Demons rank second with a 29 percent defensive effort.
 
The 3-ball is a big part of the gameplan for the Lady Demons, who average a league-high 21.9 attempts per game overall. They had a stretch of four straight games with eight or more makes earlier this season and have made 10 in a game three different times this year.
 
The Lady Demons have a bevy of shooters from which to pick to take those deep looks, but over the past four games, Candice Parramore has added her name to the list of sharpshooters.
 
On Thursday, Parramore made a career-high four against HCU on her way to a career-high 24 points in the win, one game after establishing a new season high and matching her career high with three made triples in her milestone performance at UNO.
 
Poetically enough for the expansion of her game to more than her quintessential dribble-drive, attack the basket style, Parramore eclipsed the 1,000 point plateau with a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter in New Orleans.
 
"It's a blessing," Parramore said of the milestone. "It's a huge accomplishment for me but I feel like it was my coaches and teammates that helped me get there. I really wouldn't have made it without them, so I'm just grateful."
 
Since coming back from the first real injury of her career that forced her out of the first four conference games, Parramore has come back with a vengeance scoring 18 or more points in the past four games and averaging 17.5 per game. She is also shooting 57 percent from beyond the arc during that time.
 
"The coaches have really been helping me gain confidence in my shot," Parramore said. "It really is just a confidence thing for me when it comes to 3s now. I know how people are going to play me, so I've been working on gaining that confidence to take those long shots."
 
"She's a fighter," head coach Anna Nimz said of the senior guard. "She goes hard in practice, she goes hard in games and being the player that we know that she can be. The team has kind of been rallying around that. 
 
"But on the flip side we need to have that kind of consistency in a few more people. You can count on her most nights to get you double-digit points, but we need to sprinkle in some others that are doing that as well. It doesn't have to be the same people every time, but we need others to have those kinds of games as well."
 
The Demons have had eight other players score in double-digits in a game this season, with Joelle Johnson reaching the mark seven times, the second most behind Parramore's eight. Sharna Ayres and Jiselle Woodson have each done it five times on the season.
 
They will look to build on the defensive effort and focus from the week of practice that came to fruition on Thursday against HCU to take on the Lamar duo of Sabria Dean and Akasha Davis who rank fourth and fifth in the conference in scoring at 15.0 points per game.