NATCHITOCHES—Everything is right in front of the Northwestern State women's basketball team, as it begins its final three games of the regular season.

Luckily for the Demons (13-13, 10-7), all three games are at the friendly confines of Prather Coliseum, beginning with a big contest for Southland Conference Tournament seeding against UIW (15-12, 10-8) on Thursday.

Tip-off is at 6:30 and can be viewed on ESPN+.

In the conference standings, Northwestern State sits in fifth place and UIW is a half-game behind the Demons in sixth place. UTRGV, the team in fourth place, is just a game ahead of sixth place UIW and two in front of Nicholls, which is in the seventh place.

"To finish the season with the final three at home is really important," head coach Anna Nimz said. "We have three games remaining to everybody else's two, so it is actually a positive because we get to be in control of our own destiny. It's very much about us handling our business."

The Demons are 7-4 in front of the home crowd, with the only three home losses in league play coming to the top three teams in the SLC.

Northwestern State is aiming to exact a bit of revenge on UIW, as the Cardinals beat the Demons 48-46 on a last-second shot from Myra Bell in San Antonio all the way back in the conference opener Dec. 6.

"We're definitely a different team than the first game," Nimz said. "We're no longer 11 new faces. At that point in the season, we were still wondering who was in our top five and top seven. Although we still play around with our top 10, we have very much nailed down that top five. They play well and play with confidence. It's a different team, but on the flip side, we're absolutely seeing a different team from them."

Mya Blake and Vernell Atamah each scored 15 points for the Demons that night, setting the tone for Southland play, showing the league who two of the best players in the conference are.

It is fitting that the pairing lifted the Demons to a big comeback win last game at New Orleans, as they combined for 57 of the team's 76 points in a 76-74 victory.

Blake, a senior from Stockton, California, tallied her fourth game of the season with at least 30 points, scoring 31 in the win, while the freshman Atamah nearly posted her third consecutive double-double with 26 points and nine rebounds.

This season, Atamah has recorded five double-doubles, which are tied for seventh in the country among freshmen. Eastern Washington's Kourtney Grossman leads the way in doubles-doubles by freshmen with 11.

She is the only freshman among the top 25 scorers in SLC play and the only freshman averaging double figures in points.

With one triple last game against New Orleans, Sharna Ayres (189) moved past Judy Clark for fourth in program history in career made 3-pointers.

Northwestern State's defense has its work cut out for itself, as UIW places right behind the top three in the Southland Conference when it comes to field goal percentage, shooting 40.2 percent.

UIW doesn't have just one player who scores, as the Cardinals have five players averaging between 7.9 and 10 points per game, and four more who score between four and six points per contest.

In the Cardinals previous game, a close loss to Stephen F. Austin, Brynn Lusby poured in 20 points, which was more than her combined point total the previous four games (19).

UIW has had five different leading scorers in the last nine games and has had seven players either tie or outright led the Cardinals in scoring during SLC play.

Following the contest, the Demons stay at home for a game at Prather Coliseum against Houston Christian on Saturday before finishing with East Texas A&M on March 5, as Northwestern State aims to build more momentum as the conference tournament awaits, beginning next month.