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SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
5-14 (3-12 GAC)
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#21 ARKANSAS TECH
GOLDEN SUNS
16-3 (12-3 GAC)
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HENDERSON STATE
REDDIES
7-14 (7-8 GAC)
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
TIPPING OFF
The Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders (5-14, 3-12) are at a critical juncture of their 2016-17 campaign as they currently sit in last place in the Great American Conference, and remain just three games back of the eighth and final tournament spot with seven games remaining on the regular season schedule.
SAU begins play this weekend on Thursday, February 9, at #21 Arkansas Tech (16-3, 12-3 GAC) with a 5:30 p.m. tip-off inside Tucker Coliseum. The Lady Muleriders return to the W.T. Watson Center on Saturday for their first of two remaining home contests in a 1 p.m. tip-off with Henderson State (7-14, 7-8
GAC).
Live stats and live video as well as SAU audio will be available for both games this weekend with links located on the Women's Basketball schedule tab
on www.muleriderathletics.com.
LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
Southern Arkansas faces a tough weekend ahead as they travel to Russellville to matchup with #21 Arkansas Tech (16-3, 12-3 GAC) and return home for a clash with Henderson State (7-14, 7-8 GAC). The Lady Muleriders are 5-14 overall, 3-12 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 four-game losing streak, and begin the second-half of the Arkansas-portion of their schedule. Offensively, SAU scores at an average of 61.3 points per game and owns the sixth-best scoring defense in the conference at 69.2 ppg. Southern Arkansas also ranks among the league's top-five in three other statistical categories: Rebounding Defense (3rd | 36.7 rpg), Rebounding Margin (5th | +1.6) and Steals (2nd | 8.3 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 11.5 points per game (20th | GAC) and 7.2 rebounds per game (10th | GAC), while junior guard
Anna Djedjemel (Castellanza, Italy) follows with 8.2 points per game while also leading the team with the league's 13th-most assists per game at 2.7 and in minutes played at 29.0 per game. Crown is shooting a team-high 46.0% (63-of-137) from the floor which is the 12th-best clip in the conference, and joins Djedjemel in shooting over 70% from the free-throw line: Djedjemel (18-of-24 | .750) and Crown (93-of-128 | .727).
Freshman guard
Aaliyah Holmes (San Antonio, Texas) scores 7.2 points per game and averages 1.9 assists per game. Holmes is averaging 10.8 points and 3.2 assists per game in her past five games and is coming off a career-high 18 points in a loss to Northwestern Oklahoma.
Senior guard
Makaila Jordan (Wylie, Texas) has increasingly topped her output from a year ago as she is averaging 5.8 points and 5.2 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), assists (5) and steals (4).
Defensively, Crown averages a team-leading 1.2 blocks per game. Djedjemel paces SAU with 1.7 steals per game. The Lady Muleriders are holding the opposition to a shooting clip of 41.0%.
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 #21 ARKANSAS TECH
The Golden Suns are 16-3 overall and are 12-3 in Great American Conference play. Arkansas Tech has won five of its past six games, with its lone setback during that time coming on the road in a 90-79 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma in a nationally-televised affair.
Per arkansastechsports.com, the Golden Suns have been ranked in the top 25 in nine of 12 WBCA Coaches Polls released this season, including eight straight dating back to Dec. 13 when the Suns checked in at 17th. ATU enters this weekend of play with a chance to clinch a spot in the GAC Tournament in March as they currently sit in second-place behind #25 Harding (17-3, 14-1) who clinched a spot last weekend.
Arkansas Tech has been led by a four players that are in the league's top-25 in scoring. Cheyenne North posts the seventh-best scoring average in the GAC at 13.8 points per game, while Kelsey McClure enters at ninth averaging 13.6 points per game. Anissa Pounds scores at the 15th-highest clip at 12.3 points per contest, while Danielle Frachiseur ranks 23rd in the conference with 11.2 points per game.
North (8.4 rpg | 4th) and Frachiseur (7.4 rpg | T-7th) claim top-10 rankings in rebounds per game, while McClure joins the pair in the top-10 shooting percentages in the GAC. McClure (51.9% | 5th) and North (50.3% | 6th) are shooting over 50% from the floor, while Frachiseur shoots at the ninth-best clip of 49.3% and owns the top free throw shooting mark in the league at 88.1%. North (2.3 | 2nd) and Frachiseur (1.2 | T-7th) also rank in the top-seven in blocks per game.
Pounds paces the Golden Suns with 3.6 assists per game (10th | GAC), owns the eighth-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.3, and adds 1.5 steals per game (T-11th), behind Kylie Ladd's 1.6 per game (6th | GAC). Pounds produces the third-best three-point shooting percentage in the GAC at 39.3% (45 makes | 6th), but Calli White leads the team with a 40.2% clip (35 makes | 13th); the second-highest mark in the league.
Pounds ranks in the top-ten in minutes per game averaging 31.7 per contest. Arkansas Tech owns the second-best scoring offense (75.7 ppg), second-best scoring defense (62.0 ppg), second-best free-throw percentage (75.5%) and shoots the league's highest clip from the floor at 44.9%, while its +13.7 scoring margin is tops in the GAC.
The Golden Suns boast a rebounding margin of +7.8 (1st | GAC) and are fourth in blocked shots per game (3.7), assists per game (14.6), and steals per game (7.8), while forcing opponents to shoot at a mark of just 35.8% (2nd | GAC).
COACH
Arkansas Tech is led by Dave Wilburs, who is in his tenth season as the head coach of the Golden Suns Women's Basketball program. Wilburs has tallied a career-record at ATU of 112-37 entering the 2016-17 campaign. Wilburs has twice led Tech to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II National Basketball Tournament.
THE SERIES
Tech holds a commanding series lead against Southern Arkansas since 1977. The Golden Suns are 64-9 against SAU in that time span and are 33-3 when playing in Russellville. The Lady Muleriders' last win against ATU came on January 29, 2015, when SAU defeated the Golden Suns 57-52 in Magnolia. Tech was ranked 20th in the nation at the time. The last SAU victory inside Tucker Coliseum came on January 6, 2005, in a 75-65 win which spawned a series of three-straight victories against Arkansas Tech.
LAST TIME OUT
Then-#13 Arkansas Tech used solid second and third quarters of play to defeat Southern Arkansas, 66-49, in Magnolia behind 18 points from Anissa Pounds and 12 points and 10 rebounds from Cheyenne North.
Anna Djedjemel led SAU in scoring with a dozen points and
Kimberly Crown followed with 11.
SCOUTING HENDERSON STATE
Henderson State enters the weekend with a 7-14 record overall and a 7-8 record in league play. The Reddies have lost six straight games; the longest such
current streak in the league. HSU begins the weekend at Monticello and looks to improve on their fifth-place stay in the league standings with five teams trailing
the Reddies at just one game back of fifth-place.
The Reddies are led offensively by Pink Jones, who scores at the league's 4th-highest clip of 14.7 points per game. P. Jones leads the team and is tied for
eighth in assists (72 | 3.6), owns the league's third-highest steals per game average at 2.0, and shoots a team-high 47.1% from the floor (10th | GAC). Jones'
1.2 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks 10th in the GAC.
Hailey Estes (11.6 | 19th), Torrie Thompson (11.5 | 21st), and Haleigh Henson (11.4 | 22nd) all produce double-figure scoring averages for the Henderson State
offense. The trio have all produced top-ten figures in three-pointers made per game led by Estes' 2.6 (2nd | GAC) and the three players have combined for 148
three-pointers at a collective average per game of 7.0.
Estes grabs 7.9 rebounds per game (5th | GAC) and joins Henson in the league's top-15 in steals per game with 1.4 each. Henson and Estes each average
over 30 minutes per game led by Henson's 36.7 minutes (2nd | GAC), while Estes ranks tenth with 31.6 minutes per contest. Brittany Branum (83.7% | 3rd) and
Thompson (79.2% | T-12th) are efficient from the charity stripe.
Henderson State shoots 38.2% from the floor (8th | GAC) and averages the fifth-most points in the league at 73.8 points per game, while allowing
75.5 points per game (10th | GAC) on the defensive end. The Reddies are third in steals per game with 8.1 and boast the second-best turnover margin in the
conference at +2.29.
COACH
The Reddies are coached by Jill Thomas, who is in her 4th season as head coach at Henderson State. Entering this season, Thomas has amassed an 37-46
record. In her previous three seasons, Thomas led HSU to the Great American Conference Tournament each year and has coached four All-Conference
performers. This season, under Thomas' leadership, the Reddies seem poised for a return trip to Bartlesville: potentially the program's fourth in a row.
THE SERIES
Henderson State holds a four-win advantage over SAU with a series record of 51-47-1 that dates back to the 1971-72 season in which the Reddies claimed the
first-ever victory in the series with a 42-39 win. SAU won all three meetings against HSU last season including an 80-71 win over the Reddies in the conference tournament. Henderson State beat SAU 83-78 in Magnolia on January 3, 2015.
LAST TIME OUT
Southern Arkansas fell 81-70 on the road to Henderson State as the Reddies withstood a fourth-quarter run by SAU to claim the league victory. HSU was led
in scoring by a pair of 23-point scorers in Haleigh Henson and Pink Jones, while the Lady Muleriders' recieved career-nights from
Kimberly Crown and Anna
Djedjemel who combined for 41 points in the loss.
