NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State begins the Southland Conference portion of its schedule on Thursday when it hosts long-time rival McNeese at Prather Coliseum.
 
The 96^th overall meeting between the two programs, the most played series in NSU women's basketball history, is set for a 6:30 p.m. start and will air on ESPN+. Tickets for the game are available by visiting www.nsutickets.com.
 
The Demons (4-7) received a boost from their exhibition win over a talented Champion Christian team this past Saturday as a final tune up for the start of conference play.
 
Karmelah Dean scored 27 points in the game, going 10-for-12 from the field in just 22 minutes of game action, after not scoring more than seven in the previous five straight games. She was one of 10 players to score in the game and one of 12 to grab at least one rebound.
 
The NSU defense also limited Champion to a 27 percent shooting effort from the floor and held them to less than 40 points in the game. 
 
"You always want to get started on the right foot," head coach Anna Nimz said about playing well in the conference opener. "But more so we want to keep building off what we've already started and continue to see growth amongst our team. We have a lot of things we really tried to work through during non-conference. Some of those things got better and other got better and wavered back-and-forth some. Now it's about solidifying those things and putting together a full 40-minutes of Demon basketball."
 
Playing those longer stretches of quality basketball will be key for the Demons as they take on the top scoring offense in the Southland heading into the league schedule, despite them having lost four of the previous five overall games.
 
Junior Mireia Yespes is one of two Cowgirls averaging double-figure scoring this season at 11.1 points per game, behind leading offensive threat Emilia Tenbrock's 13.5 per night. Yespes turned in her second career double-double off the bench in McNeese's last game with 17 points and 11 rebounds and is shooting 57 percent from the field on the season.
 
Tenbrock has reached double-digits in each of the past six games with consecutive 20-point outings in loses to Tarleton State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
 
"They're leading the conference in scoring right now," Nimz said. "They've got a lot of length. They can hit it from the perimeter. They're a high I.Q. team that slashes and cuts and can score a lot of quick buckets. But on the flip side they can be turnover prone. Those are the kind of things we need to capitalize on if we want go 1-0. They are a strong team, and I don't think there's a team in our conference that isn't incredibly strong this year."
 
McNeese is averaging a conference high 71.4 points per game this season and shooting better than 40 percent from the field as a team.