|
SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
5-17 (3-15 GAC)
|
OUACHITA BAPTIST
LADY TIGERS
10-14 (7-11 GAC)
|
#20 HARDING
LADY BISONS
20-3 (17-1 GAC)
|
|
GAME NOTES (PDF)
TIPPING OFF
Southern Arkansas begins the second to last weekend of the regular season with a trip to Arkadelphia for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off with Ouachita on Thursday, February 16. The Lady Muleriders return to the W.T. Watson Center on Saturday, February 18, for a 1 p.m. tip-off against Great American Conference-leading and
20th-ranked Harding. It will serve as Senior Day for the seven Mulerider and Lady Mulerider seniors.
Ouachita is currently 10-14 overall, 7-11 in league play and a single game back of the eighth and final GAC tournament spot.
For Harding, the Lady Bisons are 20-3 overall and 17-3 in GAC play, while owning an 8-3 record this season when playing on the road.
Live stats and live video as well as SAU audio will be available for Monday's meeting in Monticello with links located on the Women's Basketball schedule tab on www.muleriderathletics.com.
LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
Southern Arkansas begins the final two weekends of the regular season beginning with a trip to Clark County for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off against Ouachita on Thursday, February 16, before returning home for "Senior Day" and the home finale on Saturday, February 18, for a 1 p.m. tip-off with #20 Harding inside the W.T. Watson Center. The Lady Muleriders are 5-17 overall, 3-15 in league play and are currently fighting to remain in the hunt for a tournament berth in March.
The Lady Muleriders are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak with four games remaining in the regular season. Offensively, SAU scores at an average of 59.9 points per game and owns the sixth-best scoring defense in the conference at 69.6 ppg. Southern Arkansas also ranks among the league's top-three in a pair of other statistical categories: Rebounding Defense (3rd | 37.8 rpg) and Steals (3rd | 7.8 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 (Greenland, Ark.) averages team-bests with 11.6 points per game (20th | GAC) and 7.3 rebounds per game (T-9th | GAC), while junior guard
Anna Djedjemel (Castellanza, Italy) follows with 7.9 points per game while also leading the team with the league's 12th-most assists per game at 2.8 and in minutes played at 29.1 per game. Freshman forward
Erin Brinkley (Tyler, Texas) is shooting a team-high 44.7% (38-of-85) from the floor and a team-best 80% (16-of-20) from the charity stripe, while Crown and Djedjemel are shooting over 70% from the free-throw line: Djedjemel (18-of-24 | .750) and Crown (108-of-147 | .735).
Freshman guard
Aaliyah Holmes (San Antonio, Texas) scores 6.4 points per game and averages 1.7 assists per game. Holmes has scored in double figures five times this season including a career-high 18 points in a home loss to Northwestern Oklahoma, and has also registered two or more assists in nine games in her rookie campaign.
Senior guard
Makaila Jordan (Wylie, Texas) has increasingly topped her output from a year ago as she is averaging 6.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game compared to 2.4 and 1.9, respectively, last season. In her final year for Southern Arkansas, Jordan has logged single-game career-highs in points (16), rebounds (9 -
twice), assists (5) and steals (4).
Defensively, Crown averages a team-leading 1.3 blocks per game and has recorded four games with three or more blocks. Djedjemel paces SAU with 1.6 steals per game with 11 games of two or more steals. The Lady Muleriders are holding the opposition to a shooting clip of 36.9%.
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 OUACHITA LADY TIGERS
Ouachita enters play this weekend at 10-14 overall and 7-11 in Great American Conference play. The Lady Tigers are 8-5 this season when playing inside Bill Vining Arena. Ouachita is currently ninth and a game back of the final GAC tournament spot with four games remaining in the regular season.
The Lady Tigers have lost three of their past four games, with their last win coming against cross-street rival Henderson State, 77-58. HSU currently holds the eighth and final postseason spot in the league.
Ouachita scores at the sixth-highest clip in the Great American Conference at 71.6 ppg, while allowing the sixth-most points per contest at 72.5. The Lady Tigers shoot 40.2% from the floor (6th | GAC) and their 32.4% mark from three-point range is fourth-best in the league. OUA owns a Rebounding Margin of -3.8 (9th | GAC) and a Turnover Margin of +1.12 (4th | GAC), while ranking sixth in Assist-to-Turnover Ratio at 0.9.
Madison Brittain leads the Lady Tigers in scoring at 10.9 points per game (24th | GAC) and in steals with 1.8 per game (3rd | GAC). Her 48 made three-point field goals are tied for eighth-most in the GAC. Chasidee Owens follows with 10.7 points per contest (27th | GAC). Two-sport star Kori Bullard grabs a team-high 5.7 rebounds (16th | GAC), is fourth in the conference in Blocked Shots averaging 1.6 per game, and is the fifth-best shooter in the GAC beyond-the-arc with a clip of 38.2%.
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 20-15 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, SAU leads the series 6-5. In the last three meetings inside Bill Vining Arena, Southern Arkansas is 2-1.
LAST TIME OUT
A strong defensive effort in the second half by Southern Arkansas allowed the Lady Muleriders to claim a 62-55 win at home against Ouachita. The Tigers received a dozen points apiece from Madison Brittain and Chasidee Owens, while
Kimberly Crown led SAU in scoring with 16 points.
SCOUTING #20 HARDING LADY BISONS
#20 Harding enters this weekend of play at 20-3 overall, 17-1 in the Great American Conference and currently sits in the league's driver seat as the top team in the league. The Lady Bisons are currently 8-3 this season when playing on the road and a win against Henderson State on Thursday would guarantee that Harding will carry a seven-game win streak into Magnolia.
As a team, HU averages 73.2 points per game offensively (4th | GAC), allows the fewest points in the league per game at 60.5 points and owns the second-highest scoring margin in the GAC at +12.7. From the field, the Lady Bisons are shooting the second-highest clip in the league at 43.4% overall, which includes a 31.7% success rate from long range (8th | GAC). Harding also holds opponents to a GAC-low 33.4% from the floor.
The Lady Bisons also sit around the top of the league in Blocked Shots (1st | 5.7), Assists (1st | 17.0), and Rebounding Margin (2nd | +8.0), while owning a 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio; second-best mark in the conference.
Leading the offensive attack for Harding are four players ranked in the top-30 in league scoring. Sydney Layrock paces the Lady Bisons with 13.2 points per game and adds 5.8 rebounds per game (18th | GAC). Reigning GAC Women's Basketball Player of the Week Caroline Hogue follows with 12.9 points per game, adds a team-leading 9.0 rebounds per game (2nd | GAC) and collects 2.7 blocks per game (1st | GAC).
A'ndrea Haney averages 11.2 points per game (22nd | GAC), shoots at the 15th-highest clip in the GAC at 45.0%, pushes a league-high 4.8 assists per game and a league-high 2.0 steals per game. Haney also owns a 1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio (5th | GAC). Sydnie Jones scores at an average of 10.5 points per game (30th | GAC) and grabs 5.4 rebounds per game (20th | GAC). Jones owns the league's best field goal percentage at 59.5% (94-of-158) and defensively adds 0.9 blocks per game (9th | GAC).
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 42-20 all-time against Southern Arkansas, including a 19-12 mark inside the W.T. Watson Center. Since the 2007-08 season, Harding is 17-1 when facing the Lady Muleriders with the lone loss coming last season in a 71-70 defeat at home to Southern Arkansas. The last home win for Southern Arkansas against the Lady Bisons was on February 22, 2007 in an 86-82 Lady Mulerider win.
LAST TIME OUT
Harding defeated SAU 66-56 in Searcy on January 19. The Lady Muleriders led 20-12 after one quarter, but a strong second quarter from the Lady Bisons propelled the league's top-ranked team to the win. SAU received career-high scoring nights from
Jasmyn Eckerman (15) and
Aaliyah Holmes (17), while Harding's Falan Miller led the Lady Bisons with 13 points.
