By: Darian Harris
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SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
9-17 (8-12 GAC)
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HENDERSON STATE
REDDIES
19-7 (15-5 GAC)
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OUACHITA
LADY TIGERS
13-13 (9-11 GAC)
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TIPPING OFF
With just two games remaining in the regular season, the Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders 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 final Great American Conference slate will determine the program's post season fate.
On Thursday, Southern Arkansas will host its final home contest of the season in a GAC matchup with Henderson State, who enters with an 19-7 mark overall and a 15-5 record in GAC play. The Reddies have won seven of their last eight contests and are the third team to clinch a spot in the conference tournament.
Two days later, the Lady Muleriders travel to Arkadelphia for their last regular-season conference matchup and will take on Ouachita, who is currently one game ahead of SAU in the conference standings, with a 13-13 overall record and 9-11 record in GAC play.
The Lady Muleriders are currently in a three-way tie for seventh place in the league's standings, with Oklahoma Baptist and East Central, with a 9-17 overall record and a 8-12 record in the conference. Live links of the weekend's action can be found at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
LADY MULERIDER NEWS AND NOTES
Southern Arkansas are set to play in its final pair of games of the regular season with a pair of in-state affairs left on the 2017-18 regular season schedule. The Lady Muleriders (9-17, 8-12 GAC), who control their own destiny, are one of the six GAC teams left fighting for the final three spots for the league tournament in Bartlesville. SAU enters the weekend in a three-way tie for seventh-place with Oklahoma Baptist and East Central, and are just one game back from Ouachita who is currently in sixth place with a 13-13 overall record and 9-11 record in conference.
The Lady Muleriders are 8-8 in 2018 after suffering through a 1-9 start during the 2017 portion of the campaign. Currently 9-17 overall with a 8-12 mark in Great American Conference play, Southern Arkansas has won five of their past eight games. In the eight losses the team has suffered in 2018, SAU held halftime leads in three of those games.
SAU faces a tough task on Thursday night inside the W.T. Watson Center as Henderson State comes to Magnolia already having clinched a spot in the GAC tournament, where the Lady Muleriders will be looking to sweep the series over the Reddies after capturing the road victory in Arkadelphia earlier this season, 78-63. Thursday's matchup is huge in determining the program's chances at clinching a spot in the tournament, with it also being "Senior Night" and the final home game of the 2018 season. On Saturday, the Lady Muleriders will travel to Ouachita for their final GAC regular-season contest of 2018. The Lady Tigers are currently one of six teams looking to punch a ticket into the conference tournament as they have just a one game advantage over SAU in sixth place.
For the season, Southern Arkansas is averaging 67.3 points per game, while allowing 70.1 points per game to its opponents. From the floor, SAU owns a team shooting percentage of 39.4% and a mark of 70.9% from the free throw stripe. The Lady Muleriders' field goal percentage defense is 39.4% including an impressive 33.3% three-point percentage defense which is the fifth-lowest average in the league.
The Lady Muleriders enter the final week and a half of regular season play averaging 37.9 rebounds per game, 4.4 blocked shots per game, 12.2 assists per game and 9.7 steals per game. The team's per game averages in blocked shots and steals each rank second-best 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 the 2017-18 season. The 5-9 guard is averaging 17.4 points per game and is shooting 38.5% (146-of-379) from the floor, including a 30.1% (50-of-166) mark from beyond-the-arc. In that time, the Dubach, Louisiana, native has also collected 96 rebounds, 36 steals, 28 assists and 15 blocks.
Key has registered four-games of 30 or more points this season including a career-high 40 points in a road win over Henderson State and 35 points in a road win at Arkansas-Monticello 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 after her 34-point performance at ECU earlier this season.
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 33.6 for the season. Key is currently leading the team in scoring with 17.4 points per game, which ranks third-best in the GAC.
Crown Jewel
Sophomore forward
Kimberly Crown has been as equally impressive this season as the Greenland, Arkansas, native is averaging 13.3 points and 8.4 rebounds. Additionally, Crown is shooting 48.3% (111-of-230) from the floor and 76.4% (110-of-144) from the free-throw line, while adding 37 blocks, 22 steals and 24 assists.
Crown's season scoring average of 13.3 points is second on the team and ranks in the top 15 of the GAC, while her season rebounding average of 8.4 ranks third in the league. Her 48.3% shooting from the floor is currently sixth-best in the GAC and her 76.4% shooting clip from the charity stripe is the second-leading free throw clip for a team that owns a 70.9% free throw mark which stands as a top ten 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 10 games with two or more blocks including a career-high six blocks vs. Crowley's Ridge. The sophomore has scored in double-figures 17 times this season, including four games with 20-plus points and has added nine games with ten or more rebounds, including a career-high 15 boards in an overtime victory vs. Arkansas-Monticello. Crown has produced nine double-doubles and has led the team in scoring eight times and in rebounding a 15 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 have combined for 195 rebounds, 173 assists and 113 steals, while averaging a collective 17.1 points per game led by McWilliams' 11.8 points.
McWilliams per game scoring average is a Top-20 mark in the GAC. In addition, McWilliams has scored in double figures in 17 of the 26 games this season. 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 9.7.
This season, Djedjemel is averaging 3.2 assists per game and 1.7 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 HENDERSON STATE
The Reddies enter the final week of the regular season at 19-7 overall with a 15-5 record in Great American Conference play. Henderson State is one of five teams that have already clinched a spot in the league tournament championship in early March.
Henderson State comes to Magnolia on Thursday and will feature one of the best all-around teams in the region as the Golden Suns rank in the top 5 of 14 major categories in the Great American Conference. Additionally, HSU ranks lower than sixth in just four categories: assists, turnover margin, assist/turnover ratio, and offensive rebounds. Offensively, the Reddies average 71.7 points per game and allow the second fewest points to opponents at 64.8 to produce the league's third-best scoring margin at +6.8.
HSU shoots 42.9% from the floor and 34.5% from three-point range. Defensively, the Reddies allow opponents to shoot 38.7% from the floor and 34.5% from the long range. In all four of those categories, Henderson State ranks in the top 5 in the league.
Additionally, the Reddies rank in the leagues top 5 in rebounding offense (39.2%), rebounding defense (36.2%), rebounding margin (+3.0), steals (8.1 spg), and three point field goals made (8.0 ppg).
Three players (Pink Jones, Haleigh Henson, Hailey Estes) rank in the league's top-30 in scoring with all of those players scoring in double-figures led by Jones' team-leading 15.8 points per game. Estes and Bree Bossier rank in the top-10 in the league in rebounding with Estes' 8.4 rebounds per game ranking in the top 3. From the floor, Bossier and Jones own the team's top two shooting marks which both rank in the top 10 in the league, while Henson owns the leagues top 3-point field goals made percentage at 2.9 ppg.
Jones leads the team in assists per game at 3.7, which ranks in the league's top-10, and in steals per game at 1.6, which is a top-15 mark in the league. Bossier leads the team in block at 1.6 per game which ranks in the GAC's top 5.
COACH
The Reddies are coached by Jill Thomas, who is in her 5th season as head coach at Henderson State. Entering this season, Thomas has amassed a 45-66 record. In her previous four seasons, Thomas has led HSU to the Great American Conference Tournament three times and has coached five All-Conference performers and six Academic All-GAC selections. Prior to her arrival in Arkadelphia, Thomas spent four seasons as head coach, from 2009-2013, at Pfeiffer University in North Carolina. In her final year, Thomas was named the Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year after guiding the Lady Falcons to a 27-5 record and their first-ever NCAA Regional Tournament win.
THE SERIES
Henderson State holds a 23-15 series lead against Southern Arkansas dating back to 2000. The Lady Muleriders are 9-10 against the Reddies inside the W.T. Watson Center and have won five of their last seven contests against HSU.
LAST TIME OUT | SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 78, HENDERSON STATE 63
Behind an impressive career-high 40 points from senior guard
Sue Key, 30 of which came in the first half, the Lady Mulerider Basketball team snapped the Reddies' 7-game winning streak with a 78-63 final decision in Arkadelphia.
Leading by a 52-29 score at the intermission, SAU continued to press its offense scoring 16 additional points in the third quarter which prompted its largest lead of the game of 28 points. The Reddies used the final quarter to cut its deficit down to as low as 15 by scoring its highest total points of the entire contest and out-scoring SAU in the quarter, 18-10, but the Lady Muleriders outlasted Henderson and held the final lead, 78-63.
SCOUTING OUACHITA
The Lady Tigers begin the weekend with a current sixth-place mark in the Great American Conference at an 9-11 record in league play. Ouachita has won two of their past six games at home and have an 8-5 overall record inside the Bill Vining Arena.
As a team, the Lady Tigers are shooting .421 (636-of-1,512) overall from the floor which includes a shooting mark of .343 (180-of-525) from long range. From the free throw line, the Lady Tigers are shooting .652 (307-of-471). Their overall field goal percentage ranks sixth in the GAC while their 3-point field goal percentage ranks fifth. At the charity stripe the Lady Tigers' percentage ranks 11th.
So far this season, the Lady Tigers are averaging 67.7 points per game offensively, and are allowing 68.3 points per game defensively. Their points per game scoring ranks eighth in the GAC while their scoring defense per game ranks sixth in the league and their -0.6 scoring margin ranks seventh.
Currently one Lady Tiger is averaging double-figures in scoring as Chasidee Owens leads the team with 10.7 points per game. Owens is also one of the team's leading rebounders at 5.5 rebounds per game, along with Kori Bullard, who both rank in the top 20 in the league in that category. Bullard also leads in the team in blocked shots with 1.4 per game, which puts her average in the league's top 10.
COACH
The Lady Tigers are coached by Garry Crowder, who is in his 23rd year as head coach of the Ouachita Lady Tigers Basketball program and 40th season of coaching. His 341 wins at Ouachita entering the 2017-18 season are a school record and entering this season, Crowder has manufactured a career-record of 735-386.
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 22-15 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, the series is led by the Lady Tigers at 7-6. In the last six meetings, Southern Arkansas is 4-2 with a 4-14 record in Arkadelphia.
LAST TIME OUT | OUACHITA 66, SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 54
The Lady Muleriders led for most of the first half before the Lady Tigers scored 11 points within the first five minutes of the second quarter to take the lead from SAU, 20-18, and eventually extend it out to a 12-point advantage at the intermission, 57-45.
Trailing by 12 in the third quarter, the Lady Mulerider Basketball team sparked a rally in the game's final quarter that saw them come within a 3-point deficit of Ouachita Baptist, 67-70, with just 32 seconds left to play, but SAU eventually fell short as the Lady Tigers put up five additional points to secure the victory, 75-67, inside the W.T. Watson Center.
Three Lady Muleriders had double-figure scoring with
Sue Key leading the way at 17, followed by
Kimberly Crown (15) and
Olivia McWilliams (11).
