MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Basketball team will make their final road swing into Oklahoma during the 2015-16 season as they travel to Alva for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off with Northwestern Oklahoma State, before concluding the weekend set with a slated noon tip-off in Weatherford, against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday, February 6.
 
Currently in a three-way tie for third-place with nine games remaining, the Lady Muleriders (12-5, 8-5 GAC) face a critical ten-day stretch beginning with a pair of Great American Conference rematches this weekend. SAU defeated Northwestern Oklahoma 74-48 on December 3, before suffering their first loss of the season to Southwestern Oklahoma two nights later by a score of 89-78.
 
So far this season, the Lady Muleriders have relied heavily upon the services of senior forward Rosa Bryant who presently ranks as the only player in NCAA Division II Women's Basketball in the top-12 in both points per game (20.4 ppg/12^th) and rebounds per game (11.9 rpg/9^th). The Bastrop, Louisiana, native has recorded 13 double-doubles this season, at least a dozen points in all 17 games so far and is shooting at over 50% from the floor. On the defensive end, Bryant has registered 33 steals (1.9/game) to lead Southern Arkansas to the third-best steals per game average (8.4) in the GAC.
 
Joining Bryant in the top-25 in scoring in the Great American Conference is senior guards Shana Holmes and Tierra Tucker. Holmes enters this weekend with 11^th-best scoring average in the league at 13.8 points per game, while Tucker adds 10.5 points per game; the 22^nd-best mark in the conference.
 
Holmes leads the team in shooting percentage at 50.6% and has a GAC-best 44.3% from beyond the arc. Tucker paces Southern Arkansas with 4.2 assists per game and Holmes chips in with 3.7; both top-ten marks in the league as SAU ranks first with 16.5 assists per game.
 
Defensively for the Lady Muleriders, they are holding opponents under 71 points per game (70.2), while forcing the opposition to a 38.8% shooting percentage, which is the third-lowest mark in the GAC. SAU holds a +3.1 rebounding margin and averages three blocks per game courtesy of Shunta Nevitt's 1.3 and Alyssa Hamilton's .7 blocks per game; both of which rank in the top-12 in the league. Tucker and Holmes combine to average 3.0 steals per game.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On Thursday night, Southern Arkansas tips-off in Alva, where the Lady Muleriders are 2-1 since Northwestern Oklahoma joined the Great American Conference in 2012. SAU's most recent trek resulted in a 65-56 victory last February.
 
The first meeting of these two programs this year ended up with SAU taking a 26-point win inside the W.T. Watson Center; at the time, the largest margin of victory in Southern Arkansas' five-year membership in the GAC, before it was topped two weeks later in a 104-67 home win over LeMoyne-Owen College.
 
For the Rangers (1-17, 0-13 GAC), they average 56.5 points per game, while shooting 34.2% from the field and collecting 34.9 offensive rebounds and 11.7 assists per game. Defensively, Northwestern Oklahoma averages 6.1 steals and 2.6 blocked shots per contest, but allows opponents to shoot at league-high 44.6% from the floor.
 
Junior forward Kamera Bozeman averages 12.2 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game, while shooting the conference's second-highest clip from the floor at 58.3%. Bozeman shoots 75% from the charity stripe (10^th/GAC) and averages 1.3 blocked shots per contest (6^th/GAC).
 
Fans can follow the action from Percefull Fieldhouse in Alva here via live stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/nwosu/wbball/, live audio: http://ow.ly/XUPEO and live video: http://nwosu.sidearmsports.com/watch/?Live=43.

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These two teams squared off in Magnolia on December 5 and Southwestern Oklahoma claimed an 11-point win, 89-78, while handing SAU their first loss of the season. Bryant dropped a career-high 40 points and added 10 rebounds, but SWOSU connected on 45% of their shots from behind the arc, while Janae Coffee delivered with 26 points and 27 rebounds.  
 
The Lady Bulldogs (12-7, 8-5 GAC) boast the second-best scoring offense in the league averaging 78.6 points per game, while shooting over 41% from the field. They haul in a conference-leading 47.9 rebounds per game and collect 15.1 assists per game. Defensively, Southwestern Oklahoma leads the GAC in blocked shots per game with 5.6, forces 6.8 steals per game and holds opponents to a league-low 35.3% shooting percentage from the floor.
 
Southwestern Oklahoma has three players averaging 10 or more points per game led by Hailey Tucker's 13.6. Jade Jones averages 11.6 and Janae Coffee adds 10.4 points. Jones is second in the GAC in assists with 4.5 per game, while averaging 1.3 steals per game (12^th/GAC) and Coffee ranks third in the conference in rebounding at 8.6 boards per game. Jessica Penner paces the conference with a 66.7% shooting clip from the floor.
 
Fans can follow the action from inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center in Weatherford here via live stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/swosu/wbball/, live audio: http://ow.ly/XUPEO, and live video: http://livestream.com/accounts/5503429.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Be sure to visit muleriderathletics.com for continuing coverage of Lady Mulerider basketball including pregame and postgame updates and the coach's show with head coach Julio Pacheco.