Feb. 24, 2006

McNeese State's Cowboys and Cowgirls will go against Northwestern State in basketball action Saturday at different sites.

The Cowgirls will host the Lady Demons in a 3 p.m. matchup at Burton Coliseum while the Cowboys will be in Natchitoches to tackle the Demons in a game that will start at 2 p.m.

Both McNeese teams will be looking to solidify their positioning in the upcoming Southland Conference tournament.

The Cowboys go into their game with a 9-4 league mark, a 14-10 overall record and a second place ranking in the standings. Northwestern State leads the SLC with a 12-1 record and has won nine of its last 10 games.

The Demons have also won the last four meetings with the Cowboys.

J. T. Williams leads the Cowboys with a 16.3 scoring average but he has been held to single digits in two of his last four games. Dwight Boatner has been the team's leading scorer the last two games and has a 12.7 scoring average.

Northwestern State is led in scoring by Clifton Lee and his 13.5 average.

McNeese is coming off a 62-38 victory over Louisiana-Monroe while Northwestern beat Lamar 80-67.

The Cowgirls are coming off a 55-50 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. That ran their record to 5-9 in league play and left them in seventh place in the league standings. The Cowgirls are shooting at one of eight berths in the post season tournament.

Northwestern is presently tied with two other teams for the eighth place in the standings with a 4-9 mark.

McNeese goes into the game 11-14 overall and the Lady Demons are 11-13.

Marquita Williams led the Cowgirls in Thursday's victory over Louisiana-Monroe as she scored 15 points and pulled 11 rebounds. She is expected to be in Saturday's starting lineup along with Regina Spivey, Clarissa Clark, Shamika Stewart and Valencia LeBlanc.

Spivey leads the team in scoring with an 11.9 average while Stewart is hitting 10.6 per game.

Sheronda Bell leads the Demons with a 14.3 scoring average.

Saturday's meeting will be the only one between the two teams this season.

Following this game the Cowgirls will have only a March 3 meeting against UT Arlington left on their regular season schedule.