MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider basketball team will look to rebound this afternoon after a 91-73 loss to 22^nd-ranked Arkansas Tech this past weekend as they travel to Monticello for a Great American Conference clash with the Arkansas-Monticello Blossoms. Tip-off from inside Steelman Fieldhouse is slated for 5:30 p.m.
 
The Lady Muleriders (9-3, 5-3 GAC) enter tonight's contest in a four-way tie for third-place with UAM (8-4, 5-3 GAC), Southwestern Oklahoma State and Henderson State in the current GAC standings. SAU is in the midst of a tough 10-day stretch that when completed will have saw Southern Arkansas tangle with four of the league's top-six teams.
 
Tonight's game will feature two of the top-five scorers in the country in UAM's Jordan Goforth and SAU's Rosa Bryant. They are the only players in the GAC averaging over 20 points per game with Goforth collecting just over 24 ppg (2^nd/NCAA), while Bryant averages 21.3 ppg (5^th/NCAA). Bryant leads the conference in rebounds per game with 11.9, and remains the only player in the nation in the top-ten in both scoring and rebounding.
 
As a team, SAU boasts the second-highest scoring offense in the conference behind Arkansas Tech, averaging 78.6 ppg. UAM is sixth in scoring with 70.6 ppg and defensively they employ a top-five scoring defense holding opponents under 68 ppg. The Lady Muleriders are eighth in scoring defense allowing the opposition to score at a clip of 71.3 ppg, but they own the third-highest scoring margin in the GAC at +7.2.
 
Despite their respective dominant scorers, both teams benefit from other key players chipping in offensively as each program currently ranks in the top three in field goal percentage with Southern Arkansas owning the top mark at 46.5%, while UAM is third with a clip of 42.3%. The Lady Muleriders lead the league in assists as Tierra Tucker averages five assists a game and the senior guard also paces SAU with 1.9 steals per game as Southern Arkansas places second in the conference in steals per game with 8.6.
 
For SAU, senior guard Shana Holmes averages 13.4 points per game, while Tucker adds 9.1 ppg. Nine Lady Muleriders average at least a bucket a contest, while eight players average at least ten minutes per game. After Goforth, UAM receives quality production from Nikki Mullen who scores at an average clip of 11.9 ppg and pulls down 4.4 rebounds per game.
 
For fans interested in following all of the action in Southeast Arkansas, can do so here via live stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=uam and here through a live video feed: http://www.uamsports.com/watch/?Live=115. Dan Gregory, Voice of the Muleriders, will have the call and fans can listen in live on 99.1:
 
Be sure to visit muleriderathletics.com for continuing coverage of Lady Mulerider Basketball including pregame and postgame updates and the weekly coach's show with head coach Julio Pacheco.