NATCHITOCHES – Two near mirror image teams will face off on Thursday night when Northwestern State faces HCU at Prather Coliseum.
 
The Demons (5-8, 1-1) open their first full home conference weekend of the season against Huskies (5-8, 0-2) with both teams having put up similar numbers to this point in the season.
 
The statistical similarities lend itself to the potential of a highly competitive night when the ball goes up at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+. The game will also serve as Greek Night for NSU students with the organization with the highest attendance winning a pizza party courtesy of NSU Athletics.
 
"Every coach is telling their team the tougher team wins," head coach Anna Nimz said. "Especially in these kinds of games when the opponent is so similar. It's going to come down to those gritty possessions. We're going to have to capitalize on our possessions and win the rebounding war that goes along with that. From there for both teams it's whose ball is going in the net."
 
The similarities between the two start on the offensive end with both teams sporting a nearly identical team field goal percentage through their first 13 games. The Demons have made two more field goals on the season than the Huskies, with 14 more total attempts, creating a .004 percentage point different between the two teams.
 
With both teams at 37 percent shooting from the field this year they rank near the bottom of the Southland Conference in total scoring but in the majority of cases just because the shots haven't fallen as opposed to a lack of execution.
 
"HCU does a great job of executing and sometimes their shots just haven't fallen and you can say the same thing about us," Nimz said. "We need to have that confidence we've seen more of lately because it's a big game, a home game and we've got to protect Prather."
 
The biggest disparity offensively does come from beyond the arc though, an area of strength for the Demons.
 
NSU is ranked second in the Southland in team 3-point shooting percentage, led by Sharna Ayres and Jiselle Woodson, with HCU sitting at ninth in the category with their primary threat being Enya Maguire, who has made nearly half of the team's total at a 34 percent conversion rate.
 
Ayres and Woodson have combined to connect on 48 triples this year with sniper Nia Hardison contributing six on 10 total attempts, picking her spots well in her limited attempts.
 
The Huskies do their damage inside the arc with leading scorer Dee Collins who ranks fourth in the league in scoring at 14.1 points per game. She also ranks fourth in the league in rebounding at 6.8 a night.
 
Collins scored a season-high 23 points in the game against Nicholls, her third 20-point outing of the season and the seventh time in the past eight games she's reached double digits.
 
"She's a dynamic player that can score on all three levels," Nimz said of the fifth-year player. "She has the capability of leading and can play inside but with the ball skill and ability to hit the perimeter shot like a guard. She's a tough matchup. You tell there is no letup in her game and if you have a player that's all-in all the time that's a special thing, especially when you pair that with her talent."