SOUTHERN ARKANSAS LADY MULERIDERS (4-10, 2-6 GAC)

NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA RANGERS (4-10, 3-5 GAC)

Saturday, January 17 | 1 P.M. W.T. Watson Center | Magnolia, Ark. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO SAU GAME NOTES | NWOSU GAME NOTES

 

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SETTING THE STAGE
The Southern Arkansas women's basketball team is back at home for a confernece clash with Northwestern Oklahoma on Saturday, January 17. The Lady Muleriders are coming off of a tough two-game Oklahoma road trip last week as they dropped the pair of GAC contests by a combined eight points.

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SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
The Northwestern Oklahoma women's basketball team enters play with a 4-10 overall record and are 3-5 in the GAC. In their most-recent game, the Rangers lost 82-65 on the road at Arkansas-Monticello. The Rangers are still provisional members of the NCAA and GAC and are not eligible for post-season play, but they still count towards SAU's conference record.

Statistically, the Rangers are averaging 58.2 points per game and are shooting 40% (283-of-708) overall from the floor. Their scoring per game ranks in 11th in the GAC while their shooting percentage ranks 5th in the league. Currently no Rangers are averaging double figures in scoring, but four are averaging seven or more points per game with Jonna Gregory leading the way at 9.8 ppg.

As a team, the Rangers rank 5th in the GAC in shooting from beyond the arc at 34% (76-of-222) but are ranked 11th in the league at the free throw line at 61% (173-of-285).

Defensively, the Rangers are allowing their opponents to score an average of 65.8 points per game while also allowing a 45% (299-of-664) success rate from the floor. Their opponents' points per game average ranks 6th in the GAC and their -7.6 scoring margin ranks 10th.

In terms of rebounding, the Rangers rank 11th in the GAC with just 28.3 boards per game. On the other end of the court, the Rangers are allowing 35.9 boards per game and their -7.6 rebounding margin ranks 11th in the GAC.

As far as steals and assists, the Rangers rank third and eighth in the respective categories. On the year, NWOSU is averaging 9.7 steals per game while averaging 12.0 assists.

COACH
The Rangers are coached by Eric Bozeman, who is in his third season at Northwestern Oklahoma. In his two previous years at NWOSU, Bozeman netted a 13-37 record as he leads the Rangers through their transitional period into NCAA DII. No stranger to the GAC and even more so, Southern Arkansas, Bozeman was previously the head men's basketball coach at SAU before landing in Alva after the 2011-12 season. While at SAU, Bozeman led the Muleriders to a record of 73-116 in seven seasons.

LAST YEAR/LAST TIME OUT
Last year, the Lady Muleriders and Rangers met twice with both games coming in Great American Conference play. SAU would win both matchups on the year to earn the season-sweep over the Rangers.

THE SERIES
This is the 5th meeting all-time between Southern Arkansas and Northwestern Oklahoma in a series that began in 2012-13 when NWOSU joined the Great American Conference. In the brief history of the series, each team has won a pair of games.

ON TAP
The Lady Muleriders will hit the road for two more conference games next week as they travel to Monticello to take on South-Arkansas rival Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday. On Saturday, the Lady Muleriders will head north to Arkadelphia to take on Ouachita Baptist as GAC play works itself back around.

Rainbolt Era: Year Two
Southern Arkansas head women's basketball coach Rusty Rainbolt is now in his second season and in his short time, Rainbolt has taken major strides towards building the Lady Muleriders into a top-tier team within the Great American Conference. Last year, in his first season, Rainbolt won 12 games and led the Lady Muleriders to their first conference tournament game since 2006-07. Those 12 wins surpassed the win total for the program over the past three years combined.

Stealing is a Good Thing
A continuing trend from last season is the fact that the Lady Muleriders are ranked in the upper echelon of the GAC and the NCAA in steals per game. Last season, the Lady Muleriders led the GAC and ranked 15th in DII in steals per game with 11.3. This season, the Lady Muleriders are second in the GAC and rank 33rd in DII in steals per game at 11.3

Cause and Effect: Turnovers
As fans grew to expect last season, head coach Rusty Rainbolt will employ a hard-nosed, full-court press defense for much of a given game. As a result of that up-tempo and aggresive style of defense, opponents have grown frustrated within their offenses and it has caused them to turn the ball over 290 times with 158 (54%) of those forced turnovers coming via the steal.

Bryant GAC Player of the Week
Southern Arkansas junior forward Rosa Bryant was named the GAC Women's Basketball Player of the Week for the week-ending January 4, 2014. Bryant, a native of Bastrop, La., earned the weekly conference honor after a highly-efficient shooting performance against Henderson State. In that game, Bryant would go 10-of-11 from the floor (.909) on her way to scoring a team-high 21 points in the game. Her field goal% for that game was the highest in a game (min. 10 FG made) since the 2006-07 season when Kim Davis went 11-of-13 vs. UAM.

Bryant Emerging as Scoring Threat
Junior newcomer Rosa Bryant has become one of SAU's top scoring threats this season as she is one of two Lady Muleriders currently averaging double figures
in scoring (13.5 ppg). 10 times this season, Bryant has scored 10 or more points in a game and she has scored 20 or more in four of her last six games, including a
season-high 24 against #18 Arkansas Tech.

Equal-Opportunity Scoring
In 14 games played this season, SAU's bench has outscored its opponent's bench 10 times. In those games, the Lady Muleriders are 4-6. Additionally, the Lady Muleriders
have grown to rely rather heavily on their bench scoring as currently 48% of their scoring is coming from their bench.

Chanel No. 3
Chanel Miller returns to the Lady Mulerider basketball team for her senior season after the Waxachachie, Texas turned in a sensational junior campaign at SAU in
which she was honored as the GAC's Newcomer of the Year. Last season, Miller lead the team in scoring at 15.3 ppg and shot at a 44% clip overall from the floor (149-
of-336), 22% from beyond the arc (4-of-18), and 76% from the free throw line (96-of-127). 

This season, Miller is once again one of the team's top scorers as she is averaging 12.4 ppg. Additionally, Miller is among the most efficient overall scorers in the GAC as she is shooting 51% overall from the floor (50-of-98), 31% from long range (6-of-19), and 86% from the charity stripe (30-of-35).

Right There
While the Lady Muleriders have lost 10 games to this point in the season, that is not to say that they haven't been in a position to win most of those games. Out of the 10 losses, the margin of defeat has been six points or fewer seven times.