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SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
4-9 (2-7 GAC)
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HARDING
LADY BISONS
12-2 (9-0 GAC)
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OUACHITA
LADY TIGERS
7-8 (4-5 GAC)
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
TIPPING OFF
The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Basketball team begins the second-half of their 2016-17 schedule with a pair of Great American Conference matchups.
SAU travels to league-leading Harding (12-2, 9-0 GAC) on Thursday, January 19, for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off, before hosting Ouachita (7-8, 4-5 GAC) inside the W.T. Watson Center on Saturday, January 21, at 1 p.m.
The Lady Muleriders are coming off their second overtime victory of the season: an 80-78 home win over Arkansas-Monticello on "Rivalry Monday," which snapped a four-game losing streak.
Live stats and live video will be available for both games this weekend with links located on the Women's Basketball schedule tab on muleriderathletics.com.
LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
Southern Arkansas enters this weekend of league action with a 4-9 overall record with a 2-7 mark in GAC play and are a coming off their second overtime win of the season: an 80-78 victory over Arkansas-Monticello on "Rivalry Monday" in the Great American Conference.
Offensively, SAU scores at an average of 60.4 points per game and owns the fifth-best scoring defense in the conference at 68.2 ppg. Southern Arkansas also ranks among the league's top-five in three other statistical categories: Rebounding Defense (3rd | 35.0 rpg), Rebounding Margin (3rd | 5.3) and Steals (5th | 8.4 spg).
Newcomers have played a huge role for the Lady Muleriders this season as two new faces are leading the team in scoring. Freshman forward
Kimberly Crown averages team-bests with 12.5 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game, while junior guard
Anna Djedjemel follows with 7.9 points per game while also leading the team with 2.9 assists per game and in minutes played at 28.2 per game. Crown is shooting a team-high 49.5% (48-of-97) from the floor, while Djedjemel averages a team-high 3.3 trifectas per outing.
Defensively, Crown averages a team-leading 1.1 blocks per game. Djedjemel paces SAU with 1.5 steals per game. The Lady Muleriders are holding the opposition to the sixth-lowest shooting clip in the league at 39.8%.
COACH
The Lady Muleriders are coached by
Julio Pacheco, who is in his second season at Southern Arkansas. Pacheco guided the Lady Muleriders to a NCAA DII program record 19 wins a season ago and their first postseason victory in nine years. For his efforts, Pacheco was named Women's Basketball Coach of the Year in the Great American Conference.
SCOUTING HARDING
Harding enters play at 12-2 overall and unbeaten in nine Great American Conference games this season. The Lady Bisons are currently 6-0 this season when playing inside Rhodes-Reaves Field House. As a team, HU averages 74.0 points per game offensively, while allowing the fewest points in the league per game at 60.2 points and own the second-highest scoring margin in the GAC at 13.8. From the field, the Lady Bisons are shooting a league-high 44.8% overall, which includes a 32.9% success rate from long range. Harding also holds opponents to a GAC-low 34.1% from the floor.
The Lady Bisons also pace the league in Rebounding Margin (1st | 7.6), Blocked Shots (1st | 5.2), Assists (1st | 16.7), and Steals (1st | 9.1), while owning a 1.0 assist-to-turnover ratio; second-best mark in the conference.
Leading the offensive attack for Harding are three players ranked in the top-25 in league scoring. Sydney Layrock paces the Lady Bisons with 12.4 points per game and is a 76.7% free-throw shooter (T-13th | GAC). A'ndrea Haney follows with 12.0 points per game and Caroline Hogue adds 11.4 points per game, a team-leading 8.8 rebounds per game (2nd | GAC) and collects 2.0 blocks per game (2nd | GAC). Haney averages a team-high 4.5 assists per game (3rd | GAC) and a league-high 2.5 steals per game.
COACH
The Lady Bisons are coached by Tim Kirby, who is in his 12th season as head coach at Harding and 24th season overall in Searcy after spending his first 12 years as an assistant to Jeff Morgan and the Harding Men's Basketball program.
Entering this season, Kirby has amassed an 210-107 record and has led the program to ten consecutive conference tournament berths.
Under Kirby's direction, Harding claimed GAC regular-season championships in 2014 and 2015, while also capturing the GAC tournament championship in 2015. Both years, the Lady Bisons appeared in the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
THE SERIES
Harding is 41-20 all-time against Southern Arkansas, including a 22-8 mark inside Rhodes-Reaves Field House. Since the 2007-08 season, Harding is 16-1 when facing the Lady Muleriders with the lone loss coming last season in a 71-70 defeat at home to Southern Arkansas. Before that win, SAU's last win in Searcy came in 63-47 victory over the Lady Bisons on February 12, 2004.
SCOUTING OUACHITA
Ouachita enters play this weekend at 7-8 overall and 4-5 in Great American Conference play. The Lady Tigers are winless on the road in five such games this season and 0-6 overall when playing away from Bill Vining Arena. Ouachita hosts Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday, January 19, before traveling to Magnolia on Saturday.
The Lady Tigers have lost three straight games, including a double overtime loss to Harding and a two-point loss to cross-street rival Henderson State, entering this weekend of play, after averaging 107 points in their previous two wins.
Ouachita scores at the third-highest clip in the Great American Conference at 75.7 ppg, while allowing the fourth-most points per contest at 73.0. The Lady Tigers shoot 42.7% from the floor (3rd | GAC) and their 33.6% mark from three-point range is fourth-best in the league. OUA owns a Rebounding Margin of -0.2 (5th | GAC) and a Turnover Margin of 0.47 (5th | GAC), while ranking sixth in Assist-to-Turnover Ratio at 0.9.
Alivia Huell leads the Lady Tigers in scoring at 12.3 points per game (15th | GAC) and in steals with 2.2 per game (2nd | GAC), while Madison Brittain averages 11.7 points per game (21st | GAC) and Chasidee Owens follows with 10.5 points per contest (29th | GAC). Two-sport star Kori Bullard grabs a team-high 5.5 rebounds and Huell follows with 5.3 boards per contest. Bullard is fifth in the conference in Blocked Shots averaging 1.4 per game, tenth in the league in Field Goal Percentage shooting 49.0% and is the top shooter in the GAC beyond-the-arc with a clip of 44.4%.
COACH
The Lady Tigers are coached by Garry Crowder, who is in his 21st year as head coach of the Ouachita Lady Tigers Basketball program and 37th season of coaching. His 319 wins at Ouachita are a school record and entering the 2016-17 campaign, Crowder has manufactured a career record of 713-352.
Before taking over at Ouachita in 1995, Crowder spent his first 16 years coaching high school basketball and produced a record of 404-109 (78.8%) with a three-year stop at Taylor High School (AR) and a 13-year stint at Jessieville High School (AR), where he became one the most successful high school basketball coaches in the state of Arkansas.
THE SERIES
Since the 1999-00 season, Ouachita is 20-14 against the Lady Muleriders, including a ten-game win streak from January 2009 through January 2013. After both programs became charter members of the Great American Conference in 2011, the series is even at 5-5. In the last six meetings, Southern Arkansas is 5-1 with a 3-0 record at home.
