TIPPING OFF
With three games remaining in the final five days of the regular season, the Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders find themselves in a position to control their own postseason destiny. SAU has experienced a resurgence in 2018 after enduring an abysmal 1-9 start to the season. For the Lady Muleriders, this weekend's Great American Conference slate could settle a lot in terms of the program's chances at getting back to Bartlesville after missing out on the league's postseason party last spring.

On Tuesday, Southern Arkansas travels to Arkansas-Monticello, who enters with an 7-17 mark overall and a 3-16 record in GAC play. The Cotton Blossoms have lost seven straight league contests and are out-of-reach of clinching a spot into the GAC tournament at a current 12^th place standing. Three teams, #1 Southwestern Oklahoma, Arkansas Tech, and Henderson State, have clinched tournament berths, while mathematically leaving eight of the other nine teams to battle for the remaining five spots to Bartlesville. Live links of the weekend's action can be found at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.

LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
Southern Arkansas comes into the final five days of the regular season with three in-state affairs left on the 2017-18 regular season schedule. The Lady Muleriders (8-17, 7-12 GAC), who control their own destiny, are one of the eight GAC teams left fighting for the final five spots for the league tournament in Bartlesville. SAU enters the weekend in ninth-place and just one game back of the current seventh and eighth-seeds.  

The Lady Muleriders are 7-8 in 2018 after suffering through a 1-9 start during the 2017 portion of the campaign. Currently 8-17 overall with a 7-12 mark in Great American Conference play, Southern Arkansas has won four of their past seven games. In the six losses the team has suffered in 2018, SAU held halftime leads in three of those games.
    
For the season, Southern Arkansas is averaging 66.4 points per game, while allowing 69.5 points per game to its opponents. From the floor, SAU owns a team shooting percentage of 39.3% and a mark of 70.2% from the free throw stripe. The Lady Muleriders' field goal percentage defense is 39.0% including an impressive 33.4% three-point percentage defense which is the fourth-lowest average in the league. 
    
The Lady Muleriders enter the final week and a half of regular season play averaging 37.3 rebounds per game, 4.5 blocked shots per game, 11.9 assists per game and 9.8 steals per game. The team's per game averages in blocked shots and steals each rank second in the GAC. In Pacheco's previous two seasons as head coach, the Lady Muleriders have finished the season with top three marks in steals per game, including owning the league's best per game average last season at 8.5.

Key(s) to Success
Senior transfer Sue Key has been a vital factor in Southern Arkansas' successes in 2018. In 2018, the 5-9 guard is averaging 16.7 points per game and is shooting 38.1% (138-of-362) from the floor, including a 29.1% (46-of-158) mark from beyond-the-arc. In that time, the Dubach, Louisiana, native has also collected 92 rebounds, 33 steals, 27 assists and nine blocks. 
    
Key has registered three-games of 30 or more points this season including a career-high 40 points in a road win over Henderson State and 34 points in a road win at East Central which included a late runner to even the season series. Key was named the Great American Conference's Player of the Week in Week 13 following her a weekend which included her performance at ECU.
    
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 33.2 for the season. Key is currently leading the team in scoring with 16.7 points per game, which ranks in the top five in the GAC. 

Crown Jewel
    Sophomore forward Kimberly Crown has been as equally impressive in SAU's fifteen games of 2018 as the Greenland, Arkansas, native is averaging 13.2 points and 8.1 rebounds in that timespan. In 2018, Crown is shooting 48.2% (106-of-220) from the floor and 75.5% (105-of-139) from the free-throw line, while adding 19 blocks, 14 steals and eight assists.
    Crown's season scoring average of 13.2 points is second on the team and ranks in the top 15 of the GAC, while her season rebounding average of 8.1 ranks in the top five in the league. Her 48.2% shooting from the floor is currently in the top ten in the GAC and her 75.5% shooting clip from the charity stripe is the leading free throw clip for a team that owns a 70.2% free throw mark which stands as a top eight mark in the league this season. 
    Crown's 1.5 blocked shots per game average is currently in the top five. This season, Crown has recorded ten games with two or more blocks including a career-high six blocks vs. Crowley's Ridge. The sophomore has scored in double-figures 16 times this season, including four games with 20-plus points and has added eight games with ten or more rebounds, including a career-high 14 boards in an overtime loss vs. Oklahoma Baptist. Crown has produced eight double-doubles and has led the team in scoring eight times and in rebounding a 14 times. 

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 fifteen games in 2018, have combined for 110 rebounds, 128 assists and 79 steals, while averaging a collective 18.5 points per game led by McWilliams' 13.1 points.
    
McWilliams per game scoring average is a Top-20 mark in the GAC. In addition, McWilliams has scored in double figures in 13 of the 15 games in 2018. Her 2.9 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 9.8.
    
This season, Djedjemel is averaging 3.2 assists per game and 1.8 steals per game. Her assists per game average ranks in the top 15 in the GAC and her steals per game mark ranks in the top 10.

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 ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
 
Arkansas-Monticello enters the three-game week with a 7-17 record overall and a 3-16 mark in Great American Conference play.
 
The Blossoms employ a slow style of offense as they currently rank last in the GAC in scoring at 62.5 points per game, but allows just 68.8 points per game in scoring defense which ranks seventh in the league. UAM is one of three conference teams currently shooting under 39.0% from the floor, and also ranks last in the league in scoring defense, allowing opponents to shoot 43.4% from the floor.  
 
UAM, entering this week, currently averages 38.9 rebounds, 12.5 assists, 9.7 steals and 2.0 blocks per game. The team's 9.7 steals per game average ranks third in the GAC behind Arkansas Tech and Southern Arkansas. The team's +2.17 turnover margin is the sixth-best such mark in the Great American Conference.
 
Currently, just one player leads the UAM offense in double-figure scoring as Brittnee Broadway's 12.6 points per game ranks 17th in the Top 25 in scoring in the GAC. Idalis Rubalcava (52.4%) owns a league second-best shooting percentage from the floor, while Taylor Collins (39.6% - 38-of-96) and Perry (30.5% - 43-of-141) are among the league's top three-point shooters for a team that shoots 31.3% from deep. Among UAM players with 40 or more attempts from the free-throw line, Chari Swift owns the team's highest average shooting 83.3% in 66 attempts.
 
Broadway is the team's top rebounder grabbing 5.3 boards per game and averages a team-best 3.5 assists per game, while Rubalcava averages a team-best 0.5 blocks per game mark with players that appeared in 22 or more games this season. Broadway also averages the GAC's fifth-most steals per game at 2.0 and is responsible for the league's tenth-highest assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.3.
 
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 21-17 series lead over Southern Arkansas, including an 9-4 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 five meetings.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Southern Arkansas suffered a 56-66 loss at home the last time the teams played. SAU led 28-21 at the intermission, but UAM outscored SAU 45-28 in the final two quarters to take the victory at a 66-56 final decision.