SAN ANTONIO—During the strong start to the Southland Conference play for Northwestern State, the defense has been the catalyst.

Fresh off allowing Houston Christian to shoot just 26.2 percent in a big road win, the Demons (9-7, 6-2) take their strong defense on the road for a matchup against UIW (7-8, 5-3) on Saturday at the McDermott Center.

Tip-off is at 1 p.m. and can be viewed on ESPN+ or fans can tune listen to it on KZBL 100.7 FM.

In the past six games, NSU has allowed opponents to shoot under 40 percent in five of those contests, including under 35 percent in three of them.

The team has also come up with big stops when it mattered most, as the Demons defense forced misses with the game on the line against both Lamar and Nicholls.

The player responsible for forcing both stops is Carla Celaya, who does the dirty work for the Demons.

While she is tied for fourth on the team in scoring, averaging 6.1 points per game, she makes big defensive plays when called upon, not to mention her 9.4 rebounds per game during Southland play leads the conference.

"What Carla does may go unnoticed to fans," head coach Anna Nimz said. "But they don't go unnoticed to the opponent. We give so many kids credit—energy kid, glue kid, role kid, clean-up kid. To me, those are more impactful sometimes than the leading scorer. You have to have those types of kids to have a successful program, and Carla embodies all of that.

"This year, in particular, she has really bought into that role. She is not concerned with scoring, although I'd like to see her look for it when it's wide open. But she has really taken on that role, and she does a lot of the intangibles that may not go noticed on the stat line."

In the last five games, Celaya has averaged 10 rebounds per game, including a career-high 13 in the win at Nicholls.

Celaya leads a defense that averages giving up just 57 points per game during SLC play, which is third in the league.

The magic number is 60 for the Demons defense. In games NSU has allowed teams to score fewer than 60 points, the Demons are a perfect 9-0.

In the win over HCU last time out, NSU welcomed Stephie Salumu back after an eight-game absence.

Salumu helped on the defensive end of the court and her presence was noticeable.

Salumu, who won the conference co-defensive player of the year award last season as a freshman at South Georgia Technical College, scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win.

Going into the game, she had 20 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in seven games. She matched that output in rebounds and blocks in the last game alone.

Her nine rebounds helped finish HCU possessions, and she made one of the critical plays of the game, starting with a block on a 3-pointer, which led to a layup by Salumu on the other end to essentially seal the win late.

One of the keys for the Demons is to keep UIW off the offensive glass, as the Cardinals are second in the league in offensive rebounds at 13.9 per game.

UIW relies on offensive balance, as six players are averaging at least eight points per game.

Following the game, NSU rounds out the three-game road swing with a trip to rival Stephen F. Austin on Thursday before coming back to Natchitoches for games against East Texas A&M (Jan. 24) and Nicholls (Jan. 29).