By: By: Jacob Pumphrey
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SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
0-5 (0-2 GAC)
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EAST CENTRAL
TIGERS
1-3 (1-1 GAC)
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SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA
SAVAGE STORM
3-2 (1-1 GAC)
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
TIPPING OFF
Despite an 0-5 start to the 2017-18 season, plenty of optimism remains for the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Basketball team under third-year head coach
Julio Pacheco. Southern Arkansas will hit the court inside the W.T. Watson Center for the first time this season when they welcome in East Central (Thursday, November 30 | 5:30 p.m.) and Southeastern Oklahoma State (Saturday, December 2 | 1 p.m.) to conclude Great American Conference play in the 2017 portion of the schedule. The Lady Muleriders have five games remaining before the calender turns including this weekend's GAC double-feature. Live coverage links for all of the weekend's action can be found at www.muleriderathletics.com/coverage.aspx.
LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
After five consecutive road games that included a season-opening trip to Missouri and two separate visits to the Sooner State, the 2017-18 Lady Mulerider Basketball team prepares for its home opener as its welcomes in a pair of Great American Conference foes, while looking to get back on track before the calendar turns.
Of the five remaining games on the 2017 portion of SAU's schedule, four are at home including the next three with matchups against East Central, Southeastern Oklahoma, and Delta State. The Lady Muleriders (0-5) have dropped five straight games to start the season,
but have found themselves in the thick of a decision late in ballgames. SAU suffered a pair of losses at the hands of Lindenwood and Lincoln at the GAC/MIAA Crossover Challenge during the season's opening weekend. In their past four games, Southern Arkansas has held a second-half lead, including two games with leads in the fourth quarter.
Despite the losses, the Lady Mulerider offense has improved from the opening weekend as the team has shot 42.9% from the floor in their last three games compared to a 37.5% shooting effort in the team's first two games. Southern Arkansas is averaging 81.5 points per game in their last two trips to the court. Through five games the Lady Muleriders are averaging 35.6 rebounds, 11.6 assists, 8.0 steals, and 3.4 blocks per game. SAU's 76.1% mark from the free throw line is the league's fourth-best rate.
Kimberly Crown paces the Lady Muleriders on both ends of the court as her 15.3 points per game is the sixth-highest mark in the GAC, while her 8.3 rebounds per contest ranks fourth. She ranks in the top seven of both offensive and defensive rebounding. Crown has led SAU in rebounding and scoring three times this season and has recorded two double-doubles and three games with 15 or more points. Olivia McWilliams has developed as a key player on both ends of the court for Southern Arkansas as the transfer junior guard scores at a clip of 11.0 points per game and leads Southern Arkansas in shooting percentage with the fifth-highest mark in the GAC at .523. Crown follows with a 46.2% success rate from the floor.
McWilliams leads SAU in both assists per game (2.2) and steals per game (2.0), while Ramiah Henry also owns an assists average of 2.2 and Anna Djedjemel adds 1.6 steals per game. Djedjemel appears to have found her stride as the senior is averaging 15 points per game at a 45.8% shooting clip in her last two games after having managed just 4.3 points per game on 35.3% shooting in her first two games this season. Erin Brinkley owns the seventh-best free throw shooting clip at 90.9%, while two other players join Brinkley in the league's top 15 of blocked shots per game. Crown ranks fifth in the GAC with 1.3 per game and Tuana Dinc follows with 1.2 and Brinkley adds 0.6. SAU ranks fifth in the GAC in the category averaging 3.4 per game.
COACH
The Lady Muleriders are coached by
Julio Pacheco, who begins his third season at Southern Arkansas. Pacheco guided the Lady Muleriders to a NCAA DII program record 19 wins and their first postseason victory in nine years in his first year on the job and after a rebuilding year in 2016-17, Pacheco has the new look Lady Muleriders poised to return to the Great American Conference Tournament.
SCOUTING EAST CENTRAL
East Central enters Thursday night's league tilt with an overall record of 1-3, while owing a .500 mark in two GAC contests. The lone win came in a 76-73 win over then #3 Harding. ECU opened their 2017-18 campaign with an 84-74 loss in overtime to Arkansas Tech and comes to Magnolia on a two-game losing skid having dropped games to Colorado Mines (59-54) and Regis (61-50).
The Tigers are currently scoring just under 64 points per game, while holding opponents just under 70 points per game. At the free throw line, ECU owns the second-best shooting percentage in the conference at a mark of 82.8%. East Central, through just four games, boasts the fifth-best marks in turnover margin (+2.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.9).
ECU is currently shooting a league-low 34.2% from the floor and opponents are successful on just over 38% of their shots against the Tigers. East Central connects on 31.3% of their attempts from three-point range, while opponents are only successful on 27% of their three-point shots. The Tigers' 9.0 trifectas per game are the second-highest per game average during the first month of the season and its 36 total three-pointers made are the sixth-most in the GAC.
Three Tigers currently own points per game marks that are in the top 30 of the Great American Conference. Alexa Adair's 15.0 points per game leads the team and is the eighth-best mark in the league, while Devon Branch adds a dozen points per game (20th) and Lakin Preisner follows with 10.5 points per game (28th) and her 2.8 steals ranks fourth.
???????Preisner's 48.1% shooting clip from the field is tenth in the league and her 1.000 success rate from the line is the league standard. Madison Rehl follows with a 92.9% clip from the charity stripe and Adair owns a mark of 78.6%. Preisner shoots 41.7% from range, while Adair and Branch have combined for 17 three-pointers. The top rebounder for the Tigers is Aalyiah Blakley who averages 5.8 rebounds per game, which stands as the 15th-best mark in the league.
COACH
Matt Cole is in the midst of his fourth 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 41-46 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.
LAST TIME OUT
East Central claimed a five-point victory when the two programs last played on January 28, 2017. Southern Arkansas led 35-33 at halftime, but a fourth quarter surge fell short after the Tigers manufactured a 17-11 third quarter. Crown led the Lady Muleriders in scoring with 15 points and was one of three players to grab six rebounds.
THE SERIES
It will be the 18th meeting between the two programs since the 1995-96 season. East Central holds the series lead at 10-7. After the two programs became charter members of the Great American Conference in 2011, East Central has won 7 of the 13 meetings.
SCOUTING SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA
The Savage Storm enter the weekend with a 3-2 record overall and a 1-1 mark in Great American Conference play. SOSU opened league play with a ten-point win over then #3 Harding, before suffering a 78-64 setback to Arkansas Tech. Southeastern Oklahoma has also helped boost a potential postseason resume with in-region wins over Northeastern State and Texas A&M-Commerce.
Southeastern Oklahoma averages just over 70 points per game through five games this season and owns the fifth-lowest scoring defense (67.6 ppg) in the GAC limiting opponents to a shooting percentage of 37.5% from the floor. The team's scoring output is generated by the league's second-best assists per game mark of 15.6, while its 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio is tops in the GAC.
Inside, the Savage Storm grab the third-most defensive rebounds per game with 27.8, but own a negative rebounding margin of just -4.6. In the early going, SOSU has been led by Katie Webb who is currently scoring at the league's second-highest points per game clip averaging 19.8 points per outing in addition to pulling down 7.6 rebounds per game, which ties her with fellow Storm player Emem David for 8th in the GAC. David owns the league's third-highest shooting percentage connecting on over 56% of her shots, while teammate Ariannah Kemp follows in fourth with a shooting clip of 53.3%.
???????Alix Robinson's 3.0 assists per game, which currently ranks tied for 9th in the conference, and her 1.9 assist-to-turnover mark which leads the league helps engineer an offense that owns the best assist-to-turnover ratio as one of three teams to commit less than 65 turnovers so far this season. Robinson is also one of six players in the league so far this season with at least a dozen three-pointers.
The Savage Storm currently shoot 73.8% from the charity stripe, but boast a trio of players in the league's top 13 of free throw percentage. David leads the team with the GAC's second-best clip from the line at .933 and Robinson follows in fifth by making good on over 91% of her free throws. Webb is currently 13th in the GAC with a mark of 83.3%.
Webb is also 13th in the league in steals per game at 1.8 and ranks sixth in blocked shots with 1.2, while her 35.4 minutes per contest is the second-highest average in the GAC through the season's first month. Webb, along with David, both rank in the topten in the league in offensive and defensive rebounds.
COACH
Darin Grover is in his 13th season as head coach of the Savage Storm Women's Basketball program. The 2014-15 Great American Conference Coach of the Year, 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 once named the Region II Junior College Coach of the Year.
LAST TIME OUT
Anna Djedjemel and Kimberly Crown combined for 22 points, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and a pair of blocks, but Southeastern Oklahoma pushed a seven-point halftime advantage to a dozen after three quarters and cruised to a 20-point win the last time the two programs met.
THE SERIES
Saturday afternoon's clash will be the 18th meeting between the two programs since 1995-96. Southeastern Oklahoma holds a steady 13-4 record against the Lady Muleriders, while SAU is just 2-10 against the Savage Storm since the GAC's inceptionin 2011-12. Last season, Southeastern took both games of the season series.
