CONWAY — After dropping Saturday's Southland Conference opener to Lamar, the Sugar Bears will look to bounce back tonight as they host the Northwestern State Lady Demons at 6:00pm in the Farris Center.

The Sugar Bears (8-3, 0-1 Southland) will be taking on a Lady Demon squad that comes in 6-6 overall and 0-1 in conference after suffering a 68-63 loss to McNeese on Saturday. The Lady Demons have dropped three of their last four overall, having been outmatched in losses to a pair of SEC teams in Arkansas (65-36) and No. 5 Mississippi State (106-30), with the lone victory during that stretch coming in the form of a 113-65 win over Division III Louisiana College.

The Lady Demons are in their first season under head coach Jordan Dupuy after Brooke Stoehr accepted the Louisiana Tech job following the 2015-16 season. Dupuy served as an assistant at Southern Miss for the previous eight seasons, the last three as associate head coach.

Though making his first trip through the Southland, there will be one Sugar Bear Dupuy will be quite familiar with – Kierra Jordan, who is Central Arkansas' leading scorer at 13.6 points per game and second leading rebounder at 6.6 per game in her first five games since becoming eligible after transferring from Southern Miss last season.

NSU is led by senior guard Beatrice Attura, averaging 18.3 points per game – second in the Southland – after her 34-point performance against McNeese in the league opener. Attura has knocked down 33 3-pointers through 12 games this season, also second among Southland players.

The Lady Demons are 13th nationally and lead the Southland in free throw percentage, making 78 percent as a team; and also sport the league's top 3-point field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just 30.1 percent. In the league opener against Lamar, the Sugar Bears allowed 30 free throw attempts and shot just 2 of 14 (14.3 percent) from 3-point range.

In each of the past four seasons the Sugar Bears and Lady Demons have split their regular season meetings, with each team winning on the road last season. In the previous three seasons, the home team had won all six meetings.

After defeating NSU by 25 in Natchitoches, the Sugar Bears fell short in their attempt at a sweep – dropping the rematch 60-56 in the Farris Center. In the two games against the Lady Demons last season, Taylor Baudoin averaged 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds, including a 12-point, 12-rebound performance in the win in Natchitoches, and 19 points in the second meeting.

Following tonight's game, the Sugar Bears will be on the road for their next three – at defending regular season champion and preseason favorite Abilene Christian on Saturday, then a two-game swing at Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before returning to the Farris Center on Jan. 18 against McNeese.

Pregame for tonight's game begins at 5:40 on the Bear Nation Network and 91.3 FM The Bear with Steve Owens. The Sugar Bears and Lady Demons will be followed by the Bears taking on Lamar in the second of five conference doubleheaders in the Farris Center this season, with both teams taking on Incarnate Word on Jan. 28, Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 4, and Stephen F. Austin on Feb. 25.