NEW ORLEANS—Northwestern State wraps up the road portion of the schedule with a trip to Louisiana's largest city for a battle with New Orleans on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.
Tip-off is at 2 p.m. and it can be viewed on ESPN+.

The Demons (12-13, 9-7) are coming off three tough losses to the top three teams in the Southland Conference, having a chance to win all three contests.

New Orleans (3-22, 3-13) kept its conference tournament hopes alive with a dominant victory last game against East Texas A&M, as the Privateers rolled to a 78-52 thrashing.

UNO is two games behind Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the final spot in the conference tournament with four to play.

With the season coming down to the wire, Northwestern State sits in sixth place in the SLC standings, but just one game separates fourth place from seventh and the Demons are just a half-game behind UIW and UTRGV in the standings.

Despite the losses, Vernell Atamah has recorded back-to-back double-doubles, grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds in each of those two games, averaging 16 points per game in the two.

Not surprisingly, the Demons dominated the glass in those two games, out-rebounding Stephen F. Austin by 20 and Southeastern Louisiana by 11, with 40 rebounds coming on the offensive glass.

In the previous matchup with the Privateers, the freshman had her best career day, posted a career-high 29 points to go along with 11 rebounds in an 83-66 win.

Sharna Ayres added three 3-pointers in that win over UNO in Natchitoches. She also had three at Southeastern Louisiana, which tied her with Judy Clark for fourth in program history in career made 3-pointers.

Sonya Bearden, who is third with 212, is next up for Ayres.

Overall, Northwestern State has made 174 3-pointers this season, the 10^th most in school history. The Demons are 38 behind the school record of 212, set back in 2015-16.

Blake and Ayres have each made at least 50 3-pointers this season, the first time multiple Demons have made at least 50 triples since that 2015-16 season when Janelle Perez (84) and Beatrice Attura (53) did so.

Dominating the glass has put the Demons at the top of the conference in rebounding margin, out-rebounding teams by an average of 5.3 per game.

That comes into play, as UNO is the top team in the conference in offensive rebounding, hauling down 13 offensive boards per contest.

The game features two of the top three scorers during league games in conference play. Mya Blake averages 19 points per game and is third in the SLC in assists per game (4.3) in league play and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4). She is the only player to score at least 30 points in the conference this year, and the senior has done it three times.

UNO features Nora Francois, who is coming off a massive triple-double with 19 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists this past Thursday, the first Southland triple-double since 2019.

Overall, she scores 15.7 points per game, as well as 8.9 rebounds per contest, which is third in the Southland.

Despite UNO's record in league play, five of the losses were decided by five points are fewer.

Following the game, Northwestern State comes back to Prather Coliseum to play the final three games of the regular season, beginning with welcoming UIW to Natchitoches on Feb. 27.