CORPUS CHRISTI—Northwestern State aims to build on its performance last time out against league-leading Southeastern Louisiana when it travels to third-place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m. at American Bank Center.

NSU (9-14, 5-7) approaches the final five contests of the regular season with a chance to make a move in the Southland Conference standings.

The Demons enter the final stretch just 1.5 games in back of UIW for the coveted fourth seed in the SLC standings, which means a bye in the first round.

Five teams are within 1.5 games of fourth place and NSU faces three of those teams in its final five games.

The Islanders (15-7, 8-3) are firmly in third place, two games in back of second place Lamar and two games ahead of fourth place UIW.

While NSU was unable to come through with a win against SLU last time out, the Demons bounced back in a big way and had a chance to topple the conference leaders.

Head coach Anna Nimz hopes taking the Lions down to the wire gives her team confidence as it heads into the three-match road trip.

"It was a tale of two teams, the last two games," head coach Anna Nimz said. "I don't know what the team was that showed up against New Orleans. We could have folded after that game, facing quite a bit of adversity, but they didn't. They put together three really good quarters against Southeastern. It shows a lot of maturity to bounce back and showed we can compete against the team at the top of the conference."

AMCC joins SLU as the only schools in the SLC that are in the top three in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense, ranking third and second, respectively.

Ranking right behind of the Islanders in field goal percentage defense is NSU, which allows teams to shoot just 37.8 percent.

When it comes to points per game, AMCC leads the conference, surrendering just 56.6 points per game.

The Islanders are especially good at defending the 3-point shot, allowing teams to shoot just 25 percent from beyond the arc. The Demons, on the other hand, are second in the SLC in 3-point shooting.

In the first meeting this season, NSU nearly came back from 11 points down in the fourth quarter before falling 50-45 in Natchitoches.

Karmelah Dean has scored in double figures for the Demons in each of the last five games and ninth time in the last 12, including a career-high 22 against UNO this past Thursday.

Offensively, AMCC spreads around the scoring, as no one averages more than 12 points per game, led by Alicia Westbrook's 11.5.

Eight players on the Islanders average at least five points per game.

Westbrook leads the team in points (11.5), rebounding (7.9) and assists (2.4).

The Islanders have forced opponents into 402 turnovers, the fourth-most in the league. NSU has turned the ball over 44 times the last two games. Nimz stressed how much the team needs to cut down on them.

"No matter what quarter it is, we're getting a streak in there where we are just throwing the ball away, without pressure and without traps. That is really hurting us. While we have to limit our turnovers, it is not just limiting the turnovers, but within that goal is limiting unforced and live ball turnovers, the ones that are directly leading to two to three points on the opposite end.

"In the last few games, we've turned the ball over a lot off both live balls and above the free throw line, and that makes it tremendously hard to get a stop."

AMCC is third in the conference in rebound margin, out-rebounding its opponent by 3.2 per game. NSU has out-rebounded its opponent in each of the last seven contests.

Following Thursday's contest, NSU continues its string of three consecutive matches on the road with a trip to UIW on Saturday.