TAMPA, Florida—It is a business trip for the Northwestern State women's basketball team, as it heads to the Sunshine State for its final game before Christmas.

The Demons (3-6) head to Florida for the first time for a regular season since 1980 as they battle South Florida (5-6) on Tuesday at the Yuengling Center.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. and fans can watch the game on ESPN+.

"We've got to be ready to play," head coach Anna Nimz said. "We've got to be hungry to win and believe we can win. The biggest thing is we need to continue to work on that discipline side of things, we'll fix a lot of problems. It's not a lack of Jimmies and Joes. We've got a lot of firepower, and we've got an incredible team that has worked really hard this week with also having finals. They put in a significant amount of time in practice, so they are working their tails off.

"They just have to keep believing. It is unfortunate we are learning by losing, but as long as we're learning, we are going to be okay for Southland play, and at the end of the day, that is really the only thing anybody is focused on."

Both teams aim to rebound following tough defeats in their last game, as Northwestern State fell at home to Central Arkansas, while USF could not keep pace on the road against defending national champion No. 3 South Carolina.

Even in defeat, Jasmin Dixon had one her best games as a Demon against UCA, posting career highs with 16 rebounds and six blocks.

Dixon spearheads a defense that is tied for the leads in the conference in blocked shots with 42. Of those blocks, Dixon has recorded 16 blocks and five total Demons have posted at least four blocks.

The Demons go from playing against a team that shoots quite a few 3-pointers (Central Arkansas) to one that does most of its work inside the arc (South Florida). The Bulls attempt just 17 3-pointers in the game, ranking 279^th out of 353 nationally.

While USF shoots 71.6 percent of its shots inside the arc, the Bulls have two main threats from deep, with each attempting at least 50 percent of their shots from deep.

Both Sammie Puisis and Vittoria Blasigh shoot at least 44 percent from 3, with Puisisis coming off a 19-point performance at South Carolina, shooting 4-of-6 from deep and 7-for-14 overall.

Offensively for the Demons, Mya Blake is tied for second in the SLC in scoring at 15.1 points per game for the Demons.

As good as she has been on offense, she does it all for the Demons, also averaging five rebounds, 4.1 assists and two steals per game. She nearly posted her second consecutive double-double against UCA, recording 14 points and nine rebounds.

Northwestern State has not made a trip to Florida in the regular season since the 1996-97 season at Central Florida and this is the second time matching up with USF, a Demons 87-79 victory.

Following the game, the Demons take a break for Christmas before returning to Southland Conference play, heading to Texas to take on Houston Christian on Dec. 29. Northwestern State's next home contest comes Jan. 2 against in-state rival McNeese.