By: By: Daniel Gallegos
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(7) SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
MULERIDERS
15-13 (11-11 GAC) |
(2) NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
RANGERS
21-6 (17-5 GAC) |
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
Tipping Off - Muleriders qualify for the 7th-straight GAC Tournament
For the seventh-straight season and sixth under head coach
Andy Sharpe, the Southern Arkansas Mulerider Basketball team is preparing for postseason basketball. On tap in Bartlesville for the Muleriders is (2) Northwestern Oklahoma State and the two teams will collide at high noon on Thursday, March 1 in the Great American Conference Quarterfinals from inside Bruin Fieldhouse.
Southern Arkansas (15-13, 11-11 GAC) enters March having won two-straight games, while the Rangers enter the league tourney on a nine-game winning streak. It will be the first postseason meeting between the two programs and 13th overall since Northwestern Oklahoma joined the NCAA and the GAC for the 2012-13 season.
The Muleriders are one of just two teams to make the GAC Tournament in all seven years of the conference and have reached the tournament semifinals twice win opening-round wins in 2013-14 and 2015-16.
Northwestern Oklahoma makes their second trip to Bartlesville after missing out on the tournament last season.
The Rangers claimed both of the regular season matchups with Southern Arkansas, including a narrow two-point win on the road in the last meeting between the teams on February 10.
NWOSU owns the league's second-best scoring defense and the second-highest three-point percentage clip, while the Muleriders are the league's best at defending the three-pointer and boast the top rebounding offense in the GAC.
SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
Northwestern Oklahoma concluded the regular season with a 21-6 record overall and a 17-5 mark in league play that helped the Rangers grab the No. 2 seed in the Great American Conference Tournament. NWOSU enters postseason play having won nine straight games, including a narrow two-point road victory over Southern Arkansas. Down the stretch, the Rangers have certainly found a way to win ballgames as six of the nine games in the current win streak were decided by a single possession.
Two Rangers rank in the Top 25 of the league in scoring as Cody Halvorson and Treyvon Andres each average over 12 points per game for a Northwestern Oklahoma squad that averages 75.8 points per game.
Northwestern Oklahoma heads to Bartlesville as one of the best shooting teams in the league with an overall clip of 47.8% from the floor and the league's second-best success rate from beyond-the-arc at 40.3% highlighted by Halvorson's 41.9% clip from deep. From the stripe, the Rangers are shooting 72.0% behind Halvorson's team-leading 82.6% clip and Greg Minor Jr.'s 81.4% mark.
Both averages rank in the league's top 10. Minor joins Andres and Brandon Green in the league's Top 15 in field goal percentage with Andres' mark of 54.2% leading the team.
Andres leads the team in rebounding averaging 6.7 boards per game, which ranks seventh in the GAC and his 2.1 blocks per game rank second in the league.
The Rangers own top five marks in blocked shots (4.1 pg), assists (15.9 pg), and steals (7.9 pg) as well as in turnover margin (+1.78) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2). Green and A.J. Jones each average over 4.0 assists per game and own the team's top two steals per game averages led by Green's 1.7 per game. The duo is also responsible for the team's positive assist-to-turnover ratio as each ranks in the league's top ten in the category with Green's team-best 2.3 ranking sixth in the GAC.
COACH
The Rangers are coached by Shawn Dirden, who is in his second season at Northwestern Oklahoma. Last season, Dirden guided the Rangers to a 12-15 overall record and an 8-14 record in the GAC. Prior to becoming the head coach at NWOSU, Dirden spent two seasons as an assistant at the University of North Dakota. In those two seasons, Dirden helped lead UND to a 25-38 record.
THIS SEASON
Northwestern Oklahoma claimed both of the regular season matchups with Southern Arkansas including an 84-63 win over the Muleriders in Alva on January 4 and a narrow 65-63 victory over SAU in Magnolia on February 10.
THE SERIES
This is the 13th meeting since 2011-12 between SAU and Northwestern Oklahoma with the two teams meeting at least twice a year since 2012 as conference opponents. This portion of the all-time series is controlled by the Rangers, 4-8. This will be the first postseason meeting between the two programs.
MULERIDER NEWS & NOTES
The Southern Arkansas men's basketball team enters postseason play with a 15-13 overall record and an 11-11 record in GAC play. The Muleriders have the seventh seed in the tournament and will face No. 2 Northwestern Oklahoma on Thursday, March 1 at noon from inside Bruin Fieldhouse in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
On the season, the Muleriders are averaging 77.4 points per game, which ranks seventh in the GAC. Defensively, the Muleriders rank third in scoring defense in the GAC at 71.8 points per game, and their +5.6 scoring margin ranks fourth in the league.
As a team, the Muleriders are shooting .449 (755-of-1,680) overall from the floor which includes a shooting mark of .363 (233-of-642) from long range. From the free throw line, the Muleriders are shooting .666 (425-of-638). Their overall field goal percentage ranks ninth while their 3-point field goal percentage ranks fifth. Their free throw percentage ranks 10th in the GAC.
Individually, the Muleriders have three players who are averaging double figures in scoring with
CJ Elkins leading the team at 14.0 points per game and
Keeton Tennison following at 10.6 points per game.
Draylan Perkins rounds out double figure scoring with an 10.3 ppg average.
The leading rebounder on the team is
DeVante Brooks with 7.9 rpg which also ranks him first in the league in that category, while the top assist man on the team is Elkins with an average of 3.3 assists per game.
COACH
The Muleriders are coached by
Andy Sharpe, who is in his sixth season at Southern Arkansas. In his five previous seasons at SAU, Sharpe is 67-74.
Since the 2014-15 season, Sharpe has turned the Muleriders into serious contenders in the Great American Conference as SAU has won 46 conference games and have finished in the top half of the standings in three of the past four years. The first two seasons in this recent stretch saw the Muleriders post consecutive winning seasons for the first time since the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.
As far as post-season play is concerned, Sharpe has led the Muleriders to the GAC Tournament all six years at the helm and has advanced the team to the semi-finals twice with opening round wins in 2014 and 2016. Under Sharpe, SAU is now one of only two schools that have made the GAC Tournament in six-consecutive seasons; joining Arkansas Tech.
