MAGNOLIA, Ark. – A big week for the Mulerider Men's Basketball team begins tonight in Drew County as Southern Arkansas heads east for a "Rivalry Tuesday" showdown with Arkansas-Monticello. Heavy postseason implications will reign supreme inside Steelman Fieldhouse tonight. Tip-off for the second meeting between the two programs this season is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
 
SAU's 13 wins to this point in the season matches the program's win total from a season ago and two more victories would almost assuredly lock up a spot for the Great American Conference tournament in early March.
 
The Muleriders are currently in a two-way tie for seventh place with Ouachita and just a win back of creating a three-way tie for fifth place with Arkansas Tech and Arkansas-Monticello. A win Tuesday night would put the Muleriders in fifth place, due to SAU having already clinched the season series against the Wonder Boys and having defeated the Boll Weevils 69-68 in a thriller on January 23. A Ouachita win across the highway at Henderson State would create a four-way tie for fifth place with two games to play.
 
SAU is just one game up on Henderson State who at the moment sits in ninth and is currently on the outside looking in for the postseason at 8-11. Southern Arkansas hosts Henderson State in a potential high stakes affair on Thursday and closes out the regular season with a trip to Clark Country to face Ouachita on Saturday.
 
THE MULERIDERS
Southern Arkansas (13-12, 9-10), through 25 games, is averaging 78.2 points per game and boasts a top-three scoring defense in the GAC at 72.2 points per game. Along with their scoring defense, the Muleriders hold opponents to the second-lowest field goal percentage in the league at 41.2% and the second-lowest three-point field goal percentage at 32.8%.
 
From the floor, SAU is shooting 45.1% overall and 38.0% from beyond-the-arc and averages 8.6 three-point makes per game. Junior guard CJ Elkins leads the Muleriders in scoring averaging 13.7 points per game; a top-20 scoring mark in the GAC. Senior guard Keeton Tennison ranks third in the league in three-point field goal percentage successfully knocking down over 48% of his attempts. Tennison averages over 2.4 makes from deep per game and junior Draylan Perkins follows with 2.2; both marks rank in the top 12 in the GAC.
 
Southern Arkansas owns the best rebounding average in the conference at 40.5 per game and the top rebounding margin at +5.8. True freshman forward DeVante Brooks averages a league-best 7.4 rebounds per game, and an impressive 3.1 boards off of the offensive glass. Brooks' efforts helps SAU average over 12.5 offensive rebounds per game, a league-best mark, and also retain 34% of their possessions after a missed shot.
 
Freshman Charlie Thomas and junior Wesley Nosakhare each average 2.0 offensive rebounds per game and rank in the top 15 in the league in the category. Elkins owns a top 20 rebounding mark averaging 5.0 boards per game and is also the top assist leader for Southern Arkansas averaging 3.2 dimes per game.
 
Additionally, the Muleriders are averaging per game marks of 13.3 assists, 7.2 steals and 3.4 blocks. Brooks leads the team with 1.0 blocks per game and classmate Aaron Lucas averages a team-high 1.0 steal per game.
 

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SCOUTING THE WEEVILS
The Weevils enter Tuesday night's contest averaging 81.0 points per game, while allowing 73.3 points to opposing offenses. UAM ranks in the top five in both categories and boasts the second-highest scoring margin at +7.8.
 
Additionally, Arkansas-Monticello ranks in the top five in nine other statistical categories including owing the league's top marks in field goal percentage (.499), assists (18.4), steals (8.2), and turnover margin (+2.48). UAM ranks second in the GAC in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3) and rebounding defense (31.0).
 
Four Weevils rank in the top 14 in scoring average in the league. UAM is led by big man Derylton Hill who averages 17.5 points per game. Karim Mawuenyega follows with 15.4 points per game and Tyrin Jones and Cobe Goosby each average over 14 points per game.
 
Hill and Goosby are the team's best shooters as Hill owns a 57.2% success rate from the floor and Goosby follows with a 54.7% shooting percentage. Additionally, the duo is also the Weevils' leading rebounders as each player ranks in the top 12 in the category led by Hill's 6.7 rebounds per game. Hill averages 0.6 blocked shots per game which ranks 14^th in the GAC and Goosby's 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks seventh in the league.
 
Mawuenyega's 3.3 trifectas per game lead the conference and his 42.3% success rate from beyond-the-arc ranks 11^th.
 
Goosby's 5.8 assists per game rank second in the GAC and Mawuenyega follows with a top ten mark at 4.4 assists per game. The league's top ball-stealing unit is led by four players that currently rank in the top 11 in steals per game with all four averaging over 1.3 steals per game. Mawuenyega's 1.7 steals per game paces the team and is fourth in the GAC.
 
Mawuenyega, Goosby, and Jones each average over 33 minutes on the floor for Arkansas-Monticello and each ranks in the top ten in minutes per game. 
 
COACH                                                                                                                   
In three short years the Boll Weevils head coach, Kyle Tolin, has guided the turnaround of the UAM Men's Basketball program that started from the bottom of the Great American Conference standings all the way to the top, culminating with a shared conference championship in 2017. It was the first overall conference championship in UAM men's basketball history since 1956.
 
In a record-breaking 2016-17 season, Tolin and the Weevils finished the year with a 23-7 overall record and a 17-5 mark in GAC games. It was the second most wins in a single-season for the Weevils, the highest winning percentage in school history and the most conference wins for a single season in school history.
 
Tolin's Weevils qualified for the NCAA tournament after a runner-up finish at the 2017 GAC Championship Tournament in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was the first GAC finals appearance in school history and just the second NCAA tournament appearance since joining Division II in 1995.
 
LAST TIME OUT  |  SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 69, ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO 68
Big shot after big shot found the bottom of the cylinder for Southern Arkansas in the second half of the last meeting between the teams in January. The Muleriders rallied in the final nine minutes of action to win what was then their sixth-straight Great American Conference contest. The game featured nine lead changes and three tied scores in the final twenty minutes of play alone.
 
Four Muleriders scored in double figures led by Elkins who delivered 15 points, while Perkins and Nosakhare each added 13 points and Tennison followed with 11. The latter had three of SAU's nine steals on the night and Collins contributed three of the Muleriders' five blocks. Four players delivered a pair of assists each, while Nosakhare (7), Perkins (6), Collins (5) led Southern Arkansas in rebounding.
 
THE SERIES                                                                                               
It will be the 38th meeting since 1999-2000 between SAU and Arkansas-Monticello with the two teams meeting at least twice a year in that time. Overall, SAU is 18-20 against UAM and 7-12 on the road inside Steelman Fieldhouse. The Muleriders won six of its last seven matchups against UAM since 2015 including three wins on the road in Drew County.