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SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
5-10 (3-8 GAC)
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SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA
SAVAGE STORM
9-6 (7-4 GAC)
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EAST CENTRAL?????
TIGERS4-11 (3-8 GAC)
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
TIPPING OFF
The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Basketball team hits the road for a pair of key league games in Oklahoma this weekend, while looking to improve their record when playing away from the W.T. Watson Center.
SAU travels to surging Southeastern Oklahoma (9-6, 7-4 GAC) on Thursday, January 26, for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena, before ending the weekend in Ada against East Central (4-11, 3-8 GAC) inside the Kerr Activities Center on Saturday, January 28, at 1 p.m.
The Lady Muleriders are coming off a 2-1 week in which they knocked off league-rival Arkansas-Monticello in overtime, before capping the weekend with a 62-55 win over Ouachita. Live stats and live video links will be available for both games this weekend with links located on the this page as well as the Women's Basketball schedule tab on muleriderathletics.com.
LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
Southern Arkansas hits the road for their first Oklahoma swing of the new year and in the process begins the second half of their Great American Conference slate. The Lady Muleriders are 5-10 overall, 3-8 in league play and are currently one game back of the eighth and final tournament spot with 11 games to play. Having won two out of their previous three contests, SAU will carry momentum into the Sooner State.
Offensively, SAU scores at an average of 60.2 points per game and owns the fourth-best scoring defense in the conference at 67.1 ppg.
Southern Arkansas also ranks among the league's top-five in three other statistical categories: Rebounding Defense (3rd | 35.7 rpg), Rebounding Margin (3rd | +4.4) and Steals (2nd | 8.5 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 8.1 points per game while also leading the team with 2.9 assists per game and in minutes played at 28.1 per game. Crown is shooting a team-high 48.3% (57-of-118) from the floor, while Djedjemel averages a team-high 3.3 trifectas per outing.
Freshman guard
Aaliyah Holmes scores 5.8 points per game and averages 1.7 assists per game. Holmes is averaging 13.7 points and 4.0 assists per game in her past three games; two of which have been SAU wins.
Defensively, Crown averages a team-leading 1.4 blocks per game. Djedjemel paces SAU with 1.7 steals per game. The Lady Muleriders are holding the opposition to the sixth-lowest shooting clip in the league at 39.6%.
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 SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA
Entering Thursday's meeting in Durant, Southeastern Oklahoma has won four of their past five games and are 5-2 when playing inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena. For the year, the Savage Storm are 9-6 overall, 7-4 in GAC play and are currently tied for third-place in the league standings with Henderson State.
As a team, SOSU averages 71.1 points per game offensively (7th | GAC), while allowing opponents to score at a clip of 70.1 points per contest (6th | GAC). From the field, the Savage Storm are shooting 37.4% overall (10th | GAC), which includes a 30.9% success rate from long range (10th | GAC). Southeastern Oklahoma also holds opponents to the fourth-lowest shooting clip at 37.8% from the floor, while allowing the opposition to make just 28.1% of their three-point shots (2nd | GAC). SOSU is one of the best free throw shooting teams in the conference at a mark of 75.3%; the second-best clip behind Arkansas Tech.
The Savage Storm rank in the league's top-five in three additional statistical categories including: Rebounding Offense (2nd | 43.1 rpg), Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (3rd | 1.0) and Three-Point Field Goals Made (4th | 8.0).
Leading the offensive attack for Southeastern Oklahoma are a pair of players ranked in the top-30 in league scoring. Olivia Potter paces the Savage Storm with 14.7 points per game (6th | GAC) and is a 37.0% three-point shooter (8th | GAC), with a league-high 3.3 made three-pointers per game. Katie Webb follows with 10.8 points per game (T-27th | GAC) and grabs a team-high 7.9 rebounds per game (6th | GAC), shoots a team-leading 80.0% from the free throw line (8th | GAC) and collects 0.9 blocks per game (10th | GAC). Rachel Wallace shoots 38.5% from three-point range; the fourth-best mark in the league. Sa'Liesha Hunter averages a team-high 4.9 assists per game (2nd | GAC) and the second-best Assist-to-Turnover Ratio in the conference at 2.4.
COACH
Darin Grover is in his 12th season as head coach of the Savage Storm Women's Basketball program. The 2014-15 Great American Conference Coach of the Year, Grover currently owns a 165-130 career coaching mark at Southeastern entering Thursday's matchup. While in Durant, Grover has engineered three 20-win seasons and two trips to the NCAA South Central Region Tournament.
Prior to coming to Southeastern, Grover spent three seasons at Northeastern Oklahoma in Miami, Okla., where he put together an 81.1 winning percentage as he led the Lady Norse to a 77-18 record and was named the Region II Junior College Coach of the Year.
THE SERIES
Thursday night's clash will be the 17th meeting between the two programs since 1995-96. Southeastern Oklahoma holds a steady 12-4 record against the Lady Muleriders, while SAU is just 2-9 against the Savage Storm since the GAC's inception in 2011-12. Last season, the programs split a home and home set with each school winning on the road.
LAST TIME OUT
The two teams met in Magnolia on November 19, with Southeastern Oklahoma winning 77-61, behind a big third quarter performance in which they outscored Southern Arkansas 25-10 after leading by just two at the halftime break. The Savage Storm received 20 points from Potter and 14 points from Rachel Wallace.
Kimberly Crown led SAU with 17 points and eight rebounds.
SCOUTING EAST CENTRAL
East Central enters play this weekend at 4-11 overall, 3-8 in Great American Conference play and in a tie with Southern Arkansas for the ninth spot in the conference standings. The Tigers are 1-3 when playing inside the Kerr Activities Center this season. East Central hosts Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday, January 26, before welcoming in the Lady Muleriders on Saturday.
The Tigers are 2-3 in their last five games; picking up wins over Oklahoma Baptist (63-47) and Southern Nazarene (62-60). East Central scores at the lowest clip in the Great American Conference at 55.9 ppg, while allowing the third-fewest points per contest at 64.1. The Tigers shoot 36.1% from the floor (11th | GAC) and their 27.6% mark from three-point range is last in the league. ECU owns a Rebounding Margin of -7.3 (11th | GAC) and a Turnover Margin of -0.13 (7th | GAC), while ranking eleventh in Assist-to-Turnover Ratio at 0.7.
Devon Branch leads the Tigers in scoring at 13.9 points per game (8th | GAC) and in minutes played with 32.1 per game (7th | GAC), while Whitney Stotler averages 11.5 points per game (23rd | GAC) and 5.3 rebounds per contest (9th | GAC). Branch also averages the third-most made three-point field goals at 2.5 per game, while also shooting 82.5% from the charity stripe (5th | GAC). Jalyn Jackson
ranks ninth in the league at 7.3 rebounds per game, while Stotler places 19th in the GAC with 5.3 boards per game. Jackson (57.8%) and Stotler (53.5%) own the third and fourth-best shooting percentages in the league, respectively.
COACH
Matt Cole is in the midst of his third season at the helm of the Tiger Women's Basketball program after being named head coach in April of 2014. A defensive-minded coach, Cole currently holds a career record of 30-40 at ECU entering this weekend of play. Cole came to Ada from Northeastern State where he had previously spent the last 11 years ('03-'14) as an assistant women's basketball coach where he helped the RiverHawks to seven NCAA Tournaments, including a pair of Sweet 16 appearances.
THE SERIES
It will be the 17th meeting between the two programs since the 1995-96 season. East Central holds the series lead at 9-7, but Southern Arkansas will put a four-game win streak on the line on Saturday afternoon. After becoming inaugural members of the Great American Conference in 2011, East Central is 6-6 against the Lady Muleriders.
LAST TIME OUT
Southern Arkansas picked up its first win of the season when these two teams met on November 17 in the GAC opener for both. SAU won the low scoring affair, 54-48, behind 19 points and five assists from
Anna Djedjemel. East Central was led in scoring by Alexa Adair
who finished with a dozen points.
