ALVA, Okla.- Northwestern's battle-tested men's basketball team will look to re-group and band together to pick-up two key conference wins this weekend to begin a run into post-season play.

Those two wins in order to start that post-season run will come against two familiar Oklahoma schools in Southern Nazarene and Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The match-up against Southern Nazarene will be contested inside the friendly confines of Percefull Fieldhouse, which head coach Shawn Dirden along with his team are looking forward to after playing four of the first six games on the road in conference play.

"I think the opportunity to play at home is the break we need," Coach Dirden said. "Great fans and great student support has led to us winning here against Newman and Emporia."

Despite not having a conference win on the record, the Rangers have competed against six of the top eight teams in the conference and in five of those contests have averaged losing by a total of just under five points. In the previous two games this last weekend in Arkadelphia, Northwestern showed their mental tenacity and resilience in the second half against Henderson State when they trailed by as many as 16 points before storming back and making it a one-possession ball game with less than a minute to play.

"The biggest thing is these guys continuing to play together," Dirden said. "It's just about maintaining confidence and belief in each other and the staff. I think coming out of the Christmas break against two quality teams it showed we are trending in the right direction."

That positive trend has had a lot to do with standout forward Adrian Motley's stellar play as of late. Motley totaled 23 and 27 points during the previous two games this past weekend and as coach Dirden mentioned when asked about the recent success of Adrian, his shot selection and willingness to produce in other areas throughout the game have been improved greatly during his recent stretch of quality play. During those 23 and 27 point performance, Motley shot over 50 percent from the field and also grabbed nine rebounds in the contests. Motley currently sits third in the conference averaging 19.5 points a game and has moved into eighth place on the school's all-time scoring list.

Motley and company will face a very experienced and well-coached Southern Nazarene squad Thursday evening in Percefull. The Crimson Storm (7-5, 4-2 in GAC) are coming off of an impressive 62-52 road victory over Southern Arkansas this past Saturday. The Storm are projected to start three senior starters and return eight total players that contributed to last year's team. Southern Nazarene sit in the middle of the pack in both scoring and defense in the conference. Seven different players are averaging double figures and coach Dirden noted that even though the stats may not show it, the Crimson Storm will be one of the best defensive teams the Rangers will face all season.

Northwestern will then hit the road on Saturday to face a struggling Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant, Okla. The Savage Storm (4-8, 0-6 in GAC) have also made two trips to Arkansas to play the conference's best thus far in the season, and like the Rangers have performed well at times even though their record doesn't show it. The Storm feature senior Anton Cook, who currently sits tenth in the conference in scoring averaging 15.5 points a game. Coach Dirden knows not to take any team in the Great American Conference lightly and is excited about the two opportunities to get things rolling this weekend.

The team comradery and fire power from Motley will be ready to go in Percefull on Thursday night with tip-off set for 5:30 p.m. Play on Saturday is scheduled for 3 p.m. n Durant barring any weather issues that are anticipated throughout the state this weekend.