SOUTHERN ARKANSAS LADY MULERIDERS (4-8, 2-4 GAC)

EAST CENTRAL TIGERS (9-2, 5-0 GAC)

Thursday, January 8 | 5:30 P.M. Kerr Activities Center | Ada, Okla. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO SAU GAME NOTES | ECU GAME NOTES

 

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SETTING THE STAGE
The Southern Arkansas women's basketball team is set to embark on their first Oklahoma swing of the season as they will take on East Central University on Thursday and Southwestern Oklahoma State University on Saturday. Entering play, the Lady Muleriders are 1-3 on the road and are 4-8 overall with a 2-4 mark in the Great American Conference.
 

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SCOUTING EAST CENTRAL
The East Central women's basketball team enters play with a 9-2 overall record and an unblemished 5-0 mark in the Great American Conference. The Tigers are also winners of five of their last six games and are coming off of a 55-49 road win against Southern Nazarene last Saturday.

As a team, the Tigers are averaging 63.8 points per game, ranking them sixth in the GAC, but on defense, the Tigers are limiting their opponents to 57.3 points per game, ranking them second, narrowly behind Harding at 57.2 ppg. Their +6.5 scoring margin on the season ranks 4th in the GAC. To this point in the season, the Tigers appear to be
a team that protects the basketball well. Entering play, the Tigers are the top team in the GAC in Turnover Margin (+6.91) and Assist/Turnover Ratio (1.4).

Individually, the Tigers have three players averaging double figures in scoring with a fourth right there at 9.9 ppg. The leading scorer for the Tigers is Dilan Webster as she averages 15.7 ppg; seventh-best in the GAC. Next in line is Ashleigh Kelman-Poto at 11.4 ppg and slight behind her is Taylor Fisher ar 11.3 ppg. Webster is also leading the team in field goal percentage as she is shooting at a 50% clip (75-of-150). As a team, the Tigers are shooting .316 from threepoint range, but their top deep shooter, Fisher, is
nearly at 40% from long range (21-of-53).

In terms of rebounding, the Tigers have a -3.5 margin which ranks 9th in the GAC. Currently, Webster and Jayln Jackson are tied for the team-lead in rebounding as each are averaging 6.6 rpg in 11 games played. Assists are fairly distributed amongst seven players, but Erin Walling leads the team with 3.3 apg. In terms of blocks, the Tigers have the GAC's third-best shot blocker in Webster as she has 17 rejections on the year for a 1.5 bpg average.

COACH:
The Tigers are coached by first-year head man Matt Cole. In the midst of his first season, Cole has his Tigers off to a 9-2 start overall. Additionally, Cole won his first
four games as a head coach at East Central before dropping a 64-55 decision against Texas Woman's. Prior to ECU, Cole was an assistant at Northeastern State where he helped lead the RiverHawks to seven NCAA Tournament apperances with two trips reaching the Sweet 16.

LAST YEAR/LAST TIME OUT:
Last season, the Tigers and Lady Muleriders met three times with the first two coming in regular season action and the third in the opening round of the GAC Tournament. SAU would take the first meeting, an 84-83 overtime win at home, but ECU returned the favor on their home court with a 74-59 win, and then the Tigers ended the Lady Muleriders season with a 67-57 defeat in the GAC Tournament.

THE SERIES:
This is the 12th meeting between Southern Arkansas and East Central since the 1999-00 season. In that time, ECU holds an 8-3 advantage over SAU. The longest winning streak in that time was three by East Central. The current streak in the series is two in favor of ECU.

ON TAP:
The Lady Muleriders will continue their Oklahoma road trip as they will travel to Weatherford, Okla. to take on Southwestern Oklahoma this Saturday at the Pioneer Event Center. Since joining the GAC for the 2011-12 season, SAU has not been able to knock off SWOSU as the Bulldogs have won all six matchups.
 

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SCOUTING SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
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 27th in DII in steals per game at 11.2

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 264 times with 141 (53%) 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 (13.4 ppg). Nine times this season, Bryant has scored 10 or more points in a game and she has scored 20 or more in three of her last four games, including a season-high 24 against #18 Arkansas Tech. 

Equal-Opportunity Scoring
In 12 games played this season, SAU's bench has outscored its opponent's bench eight times. In those games, the Lady Muleriders are 4-4. Additionally, the Lady Muleriders have grown to rely rather heavily on their bench scoring as currently 50% of their scoring is coming from their bench.

Substitutions Hockey Style
The Lady Muleriders are quickly becoming known for their style of subsitutions within a game. Most subs that take place for SAU see five players coming onto the court and five leaving the court. That unique style of subbing has resulted in 13 of the 17 active players logging more than 10 minutes per game. Additionally, eight players are averaging 15 or more minutes of playing time