NATCHITOCHES – The measuring-stick games continue for the Northwestern State men's basketball team.
 
Coming off a victory against Nicholls in a matchup of teams that were unbeaten in Southland Conference play, the Demons will do it again against McNeese at 6:30 p.m. inside Prather Coliseum on ESPN+.
 
Both Northwestern and McNeese enter the game with 3-0 Southland Conference records. A win would give the Demons (6-7 overall) their best Southland start since opening league play 5-0 in the 2004-05 season.
 
"Just like I told the television postgame, we're not going to act like the elephant isn't in the room and we don't see it," second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said following Saturday's win against Nicholls. "McNeese is a fine program. (McNeese coach) Will Wade's a good friend of mine. My team is really good as well. We're going to prepare and be ready to go. We're playing at home. I loved that crowd (Saturday), and I expect it to be even bigger on Monday. We're excited and ready to go."
 
Northwestern held off Nicholls, 68-66, on Saturday thanks in large part to a defense that stifled the Colonels in the second half.
 
The Demons limited Nicholls to 36.7-percent shooting in the final 20 minutes and outrebounded the Colonels by 12 – Northwestern's largest rebounding margin of the season.
 
Controlling the glass and continuing to defend are high on Cabrera's checklist for the Monday night matchup where the winner will emerge with at least a share of the conference lead after four games.
 
"We'll never waver on that," Cabrera said about playing defense. "I'll never say to my staff or players, 'We have to get better offensively.' We have to get better execution-wise, but defensively, we are locked in as long as I'm the coach of this team. As long as I'm able to coach this game, I'm always going to be defensive-minded. That's going to win us games and championships. So far, we've done well.
 
"We have moments where we need to get better at certain things, but we've done well on the defensive end playing our matchup zone and in man-to-man. We just have to keep trending upward and getting better."
 
The Demons used a full-roster effort to take hand Nicholls its first conference loss on Saturday. Four Northwestern players reached double figures in points while Lado Laku (three blocks) and Landyn Jumawan (four steals) each recorded career highs in pivotal defensive categories.
 
Building off that momentum will be pivotal against the defending Southland regular-season and tournament champions who are on a 14-game league win streak.
 
"McNeese is a really, really, really good team," Cabrera said. "They've played a really tough schedule, and we did too. I think we played the toughest schedule in the conference, and McNeese is up there in the top two or three. They have balance. They have depth. They have size. They can beat you defensively alone even if they have a bad shooting night. We have to lock in on the defensive end. We're going to do our job defensively."