NATCHITOCHES, LOUISIANA – After four consecutive home doubleheaders, the University of the Incarnate Word women's and men's basketball teams will be away from home on Thursday night when they play Southland Conference rival Northwestern State.  The women's game starts at 5:30 p.m. and will be followed by the men's game at approximately 7:30.

The UIW women will attempt to get back on the winning track after losing their last two games despite holding halftime leads.  The Cardinals (8-10, 2-4) are one of the top free throw shooting teams in the conference connecting on 74.0 percent of their attempts.  They have outscored the opposition by 143 points at the charity stripe.  Senior Rose Whitehead (Grapevine/Grapevine HS) leads the team with 14.2 points per game and grabs 5.3 rebounds per game.  Ifunanya Mora (Grand Prairie/Arlington Bowie HS) chips in with 10.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

The Lady Demons (10-9, 3-4) suffered two defeats last week in similar fashion to the Cardinals.  Keisha Lee leads the team with 15.4 points per game and is coming off a 25-point game against Oral Roberts.  Trudy Armstead is the team leader with 5.7 rebounds per game and Janelle Perez dishes out a team high 4.3 assists per game.

The UIW men are embarking on their most important road trip of the season and hope to keep things rolling against the Demons (7-11, 3-4).  The Cardinals (16-3, 4-2) have won four of their last five conference games, including both last week.  Junior guard Denzel Livingston (Houston/Waltrip HS) is the reigning Southland Player of the Week and College Sports Madness Mid-Major Player of the Week.  He comes into the game averaging 19.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.6 blocks and 2.6 steals per game.  Kyle Hittle (New Braunfels/New Braunfels HS) puts in 16.9 points per game while Ian Markolf (San Antonio/Churchill HS) leads the team with 8.1 rebounds per game.

The Demons are the only team in the conference averaging more points per game than the Cardinals with 87.1 per contest to 84.5 for UIW.  Northwestern State features an excellent point guard in Jalan West who is averaging 19.0 points, 5.9 assists and 2.6 steals per game.

The men's game features five of the top 11 scorers in the Southland Conference in Livingston, Hittle, West, DeQuan Hicks and Zeek Woodley.
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