MAGNOLIA, Ark. – After an 0-9 start to the season, the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Basketball team has won four out of its past seven games, including three Great American Conference matchups. The fourth week of January proves to be a pivotal one for SAU, which as of late is playing some of its best basketball of the season.
 
The Lady Muleriders will have an opportunity to climb the league standings this week with three conference tilts blanketing the schedule; beginning first with a meeting against GAC-rival Arkansas-Monticello on Tuesday night inside the W.T. Watson Center. Tip-off from Magnolia is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. A win Tuesday night against UAM would match the program's league win total from a season ago with 11 conference games to play this season.
 
Since a convincing December 30 win against Crowley's Ridge, Southern Arkansas (4-12, 3-7 GAC) has engineered a turnaround, evident by improvement in several statistical categories and top big time performances from several players, and finds themselves in a position to make a push for Bartlesville with five weeks remaining in the regular season. Two of the team's four wins in that stretch have come at home and SAU will play six of its next eight and seven of its final twelve games in Magnolia.
 
In the nine losses that SAU suffered to begin the year, the Lady Muleriders averaged just 60.2 points per game with a -12.4 scoring margin, behind a collective 36.2% shooting mark from the floor. In that timespan, Southern Arkansas was also averaging 35.9 rebounds per game, which led to a -8.3 rebounding margin, in addition to averaging over 18 turnovers per game.
 
But in the Lady Muleriders' last seven games, head coach Julio Pacheco has saw his team improve markedly as offensively SAU boasts a scoring average of 71.4 points per game, including a +18.7 point improvement in scoring margin, while also converting 5% more of their shot attempts and grabbing four more rebounds per game.
 
As much improvement as the offense has shown in its previous seven trips to the court, it has been the Lady Mulerider defense that has sparked the midseason dispatch. In its past seven games, the Southern Arkansas resistance is allowing 7.6 fewer points, three fewer three-point makes, and four and a half fewer rebounds per game to its opponents, while also seeing the team's steals per game average rise from 8.2 per game to 11.6 per game as well as the team's blocks per game average increase from 3.2 to 5.7.
 
Additionally, the Lady Muleriders are averaging four fewer turnovers per game in their last seven outings than in the team's first nine games this season which has resulted in a +3.4 improvement in turnover margin.
 
Bartlesville Outlook
 
After producing the program's best season of the Division II era (1995-96) which saw Pacheco's first SAU team march to the GAC Tournament Semifinals and finish with 19 wins in 2015-16, the Lady Muleriders missed out on a return trip to Bartlesville a season ago. At 3-7 in league play and currently in tenth place in the league standings this season, Southern Arkansas is currently a game and a half back of the eighth and final tournament spot in early March. Of the seven home games remaining on the regular season schedule, all are against Great American Conference opponents currently ahead of the Lady Muleriders in the league standings entering Tuesday night's rivalry showdown with Arkansas-Monticello.
 
Key(s) to Success
 
Senior transfer Sue Key has been a vital factor in Southern Arkansas' successes in 2018. The 5-9 guard, in her last seven games, is averaging 22.4 points per game and is shooting just under 45% (53-of-118) from the floor, including a 36.0% (18-of-50) mark from beyond-the-arc. In that time, the Dubach, Louisiana, native has also collected 27 rebounds, 15 steals, five blocks and five assists.
 
Plagued with a short bench, Key has proven to be a durable performer for the Lady Muleriders as she leads the team in minutes per game averaging 32 for the season, which is tenth-highest average in the league, and 33.9 during SAU's aforementioned seven-game stand. Key is currently leading the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game, which ranks 6^th in the GAC. Her 1.7 made three-point attempts per game ranks 15^th in the GAC.
 
In a road win at Henderson State, Key produced the highest scoring game of any women's basketball player in the GAC this season after dropping 40 points to help SAU snap the Reddies' seven-game winning streak. Key went for 24 points in the first quarter of the win and finished 11-of-12 (.917) from the free-throw line for the afternoon. She shot just under 53% from the floor for the week and averaged 28.5 points per game. With scoring totals of 17 and 40 against Ouachita and Henderson State, respectively, Key has now scored in double figures in nine-straight games including eight of those games with 15 or more points.
 
Crown Jewel
 
Sophomore forward Kimberly Crown has been as equally impressive in SAU's last seven outings as the Greenland, Arkansas, native is averaging 15.0 points and 9.4 rebounds in that timespan. In her last seven games, Crown is shooting over 55% (37-of-67) from the floor and over 73% (31-of-42) from the free-throw line, while adding 11 blocks, eight steals and six assists.
 
Crown's season scoring average of 13.6 points is second on the team and ranks 12^th in the GAC, while her season rebounding average of 8.3 ranks tied for fifth in the league. Her 48.9% shooting from the floor is currently fourth in the GAC and her 75.8% shooting clip from the charity stripe ranks eleventh and is the second-best free throw clip for a team that owns a 72.4% free throw mark which stands as the fifth-best mark in the league this season.
 
Crown's 1.5 blocked shots per game average is currently fourth and in her last seven games, the 6-1 forward is averaging 1.6 blocks per game. This season, Crown has recorded six games with two or more blocks including a career-high six blocks vs. Crowley's Ridge. The sophomore has scored in double-figures 11 times this season, including eight games with 15-plus points and has added seven games with ten or more rebounds in producing seven double-doubles. Crown has led the team in scoring six times and in rebounding ten times.
 
In her last three games, Crown has produced three double-doubles averaging 18.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.
 
O and D
 
Junior guard Olivia McWilliams (Little Rock, Ark.) and senior guard Anna Djedjemel (Castellanza, Italy) have been just as impressive as their top-scoring teammates and have gotten the job done on both ends of the court as the duo, in SAU's last seven games, have combined for 55 rebounds, 49 assists and 35 steals, while averaging a collective 17 points per game led by McWilliams' 11.9 points.
 
McWilliams is currently averaging 11.1 points per game which is a Top-25 scoring mark in the GAC. In addition, McWilliams has scored in double figures in five of her past seven games. Her 2.7 steals per game place her second in the league in the category and help Southern Arkansas own the second-best steals per game mark in the GAC at 9.7.
 
This season, Djedjemel's 2.6 assists per game is the 15^th-best mark in the GAC and her 1.6 steals per game stand is the 14^th-best average in the league.
 
Season Highlights

• SAU's 68-point win at home against Crowley's Ridge was the second largest margin of victory for the Lady Muleriders since the 2004-05 season when SAU beat Arkansas Baptist 98-25. That margin of victory was also the second largest in the Division II era.
• The Lady Muleriders engineered a huge second half surge to rally back from an 18-point halftime deficit to top Northwestern Oklahoma 63-59 for the team's first league win of the season.  
• Southern Arkansas' 65-58 win over Harding was the program's first against the Lady Bisons in Magnolia since a 59-58 victory on January 14, 2010; which stood as just one of two Gulf South Conference wins for SAU that season.
• Key dropped a then career-high 33 points in the win over Harding and that point total was the most by a Lady Mulerider since Rosa Bryant's 40 point outburst against Southeastern Oklahoma on December 5, 2015. A week and a half later, Key went off for 40 points, including 24 points in the first quarter, in a road win at Henderson State.
• Behind Key's hot shooting performance in Arkadelphia, Southern Arkansas snapped the Reddies' seven-game winning streak as they picked up their fourth win overall and third in league play.

Great American Conference Statistical Rankings (TEAM | PLAYER)
SCOUTING ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
 
Arkansas-Monticello enters the three-game week with a 5-10 record overall and a 1-9 mark in Great American Conference play. UAM has suffered losses in all six of its games, all of which were league contests, in 2018.
 
The Blossoms employ a slow style of offense as they currently rank last in the GAC in scoring at 61.0 points per game, but own the league's second-best scoring defense allowing just 65.2 points per game. UAM is one of eight conference teams currently shooting 39.5% or better from the floor, but are also one of four teams in the league allowing opponents to shoot 40% or better.
 
UAM, entering this week, currently averages a league-low 32.7 rebounds, 12.2 assists, 9.5 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. The team's 9.5 steals per game average ranks third in the GAC behind Arkansas Tech and Southern Arkansas. The team's +2.00 turnover margin is the fourth-best such mark in the Great American Conference.
 
Two players lead the UAM offense in double-figure scoring as Brittnee Broadway's 12.3 points per game and Charlynn Perry's 10.5 points per game both rank in the Top 25 in scoring in the GAC. Mackenzie Johnson (59.3%) and Idalis Rubalcava (51.8%) each shoot over 50% from the floor, while Taylor Collins (39.7% - 23-of-58) and Perry (34.8% - 32-of-92) are among the league's top three-point shooters for a team that shoots 31.2% from deep; a top-ten mark in the GAC. Among UAM players with 40 or more attempts from the free-throw line, Broadway owns the team's highest average shooting 71.4% in 84 attempts.
 
Rubalcava is the team's top rebounder grabbing 5.0 boards per game and averages a team-best 0.6 blocks per game, while Broadway is the top passer averaging the league's eighth-best assists per game mark at 3.4. Broadway also averages the GAC's eighth-most steals per game at 1.9 and is responsible for the league's seventh-highest assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.4.
 
COACH
 
The Blossoms are coached by Tanya Ray, who is in her 7th season as head coach at Arkansas-Monticello. Entering this season, Ray has amassed a 63-98 record. Ray has led UAM to the Great American Conference Tournament in five of her six years as head coach. In 2014-15, Ray engineered a UAM squad that posted the program's 29^th winning season.
 
THE SERIES
 
Since the 1999 season, Arkansas-Monticello holds a 20-17 series lead over Southern Arkansas, including an 8-4 mark against the Lady Muleriders since the 2011-12 season when both schools became charter members of the Great American Conference. However, SAU has won three of the past four meetings including an 80-78 overtime thriller in the teams' last matchup in Magnolia.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Southern Arkansas suffered a 66-49 loss on the road at UAM the last time the teams played. The Blossom win snapped a three-game winning streak for SAU against Arkansas-Monticello. The contest featured six lead changes and nine tied scores, with the Lady Muleriders tying the game just once in the second half: at 35 with 5:44 remaining in the third quarter. UAM led 32-29 at the intermission and outscored SAU 34-20 in the final two quarters.