HOUSTON – Northwestern State has four games remaining in the 2023-24 season. A win on Saturday though would guarantee it at least one more.
 
When the Demons (9-16, 5-9) face HCU (6-19, 1-13) on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ it truly is as simple as win and you're in. A season sweep of the Huskies would secure NSU's spot in the Southland Conference Tournament in Lake Charles starting on March 11, their third straight trip to the tournament under head coach Anna Nimz.
 
NSU held on for a 63-61 win over the Huskies in the first meeting on Jan. 11 in Natchitoches.
 
The Demons enter the pivotal game, and final one of a three-game road swing in Texas, after a pair of tough road losses where turnovers proved to be the major sticking point in those defeats.
 
A 28-turnover game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi led to 28 points for the Islanders and after holding the lead through the first three quarters at UIW, four costly giveaways led to nine Cardinal points in the final five minutes of the game.
 
Despite the high turnover numbers the Demons have done pretty much every other thing they needed to do to win games. They have outrebounded their opponents in now nine straight games, the longest streak ever in conference play and the second longest streak overall in more than 20 years. They have shot better than 33 percent from the field while holding opponents to totals below their scoring averages for the season.
 
"I believe in what that can do and that we can be a very scary team," head coach Anna Nimz said. "We've got to get that turnover thing corrected. It's not for lack of practice or effort or any of that, it's just at some point it's got to click. We are staying highly competitive in our games with a lot of turnovers that could turn into big losses. They're doing a lot of things right to stay in these games. They have a lot of resiliency."
 
With no Thursday game, getting their off day in week eight of the conference slate, the Demons have had a little extra time to reset following a tough stretch of game in preparation for the final stretch of the season. 
 
"We had a great, high-energy, competitive practice on Wednesday," Nimz said. "We've spent a lot of solid time working on ourselves. Working on our offense and making some better decisions. We had the team over for a meal at the house this week and just kind of took a collective breath. I'm thankful for the bye on Thursday and that we have the chance to rest some legs this week and focus in a little more on us than two different scouts."
 
NSU locked down the HCU offense over the final 3:36 of the game to help secure the two-point win in the first meeting with the Huskies. A balanced offense, led by a then career high 19 points from Jenny Ntambwe, showed their poise and calm in tense moments down the stretch of the game to convert on needed baskets.
 
Ntambwe scored all of her 19 points of the game off the bench going 8-for-10 from the field in the game. She is coming off a new career-high performance on Saturday against UIW, that was very reminiscent of her success against the Huskies, where she finished with 20 points off the bench.
 
"If she will play to her capabilities, she has the opportunity to beat another personal record," Nimz said. "She had a great game in that first matchup and was part of some good, across-the-board scoring that helped us win. It was a complete team effort that night and we're going to need that for all four of these games coming up but it has to start on Saturday."
 
The Huskies have lost three straight games after picking up their lone conference win of the season against McNeese on Feb. 8. They have faced two of the top three scoring defenses in the conference in their previous three games, each time being held to less than 45 points. They face the fourth best scoring defense in the league in NSU on Saturday.