MAGNOLIA, Ark. – It has been a week since Southern Arkansas last took to the court, but on Saturday in Arkadelphia the Muleriders will clash with Ouachita as Great American Conference play resumes around the league. Tip-off from inside Bill Vining Arena is set for 3 p.m. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
 
Southern Arkansas (3-4, 1-1) is looking to build off of an in-region win over Missouri S&T last weekend. The Muleriders are 3-5 against Ouachita (2-4, 0-2) on the road since the beginning of the 2011-12 season when both schools joined the GAC as charter members. Last season, the teams split the regular season series with each team winning on its home floor. Ouachita enters the weekend with a pair of wins: a season-opening victory over St. Cloud State and a 20-point victory over Central Baptist their last time out.
 
Through the early stages of the season, the calling card for the Muleriders' success has been on the defensive end of the floor as well as on the glass. Southern Arkansas owns a top-40 scoring defense in Division II as it allows just 66.6 points per game; the second-best per game average in the conference.
 
In terms of rebounding, SAU ranks 19^th in the country in offensive rebounds per game averaging over 14.5 boards on the offensive end of the floor which ranks second in the GAC and helps give the Muleriders the 26^th-highest rebounding margin in the country at 8.7; tops in the GAC. SAU is currently grabbing 40.57 rebounds per game which is the second-highest mark in the league.
 
Top performers for the Muleriders through the team's first seven games include junior forward Devante Brooks, who is coming off an impressive weekend which saw him named to the five-man all-tournament team at the Doubletree/Houlihan's Thanksgiving Classic after averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds in two games.
 
Brooks' 25 points in the win over Missouri S&T stands as a career-high for the Shreveport, Louisiana, native and his back-to-back double-doubles gives him four for the season; the 12^th-most in the country. He currently owns a double-double average with 16.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game (15^th – DII); both of which are team-highs. Of his almost 11 rebounds per game, over half come on the offensive end of the floor as he is currently grabbing 5.57 offensive rebounds per game; the second-best average in Division II and the third-most among NCAA players regardless of division.
 
Additional scoring for Southern Arkansas has come from junior guard Aaron Lucas who is averaging 13.6 points per game to go along with 3.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He owns a team-best 80.6% free throw rate and a team-leading 29 made attempts from the charity stripe. Sophomore guard Jalen Brooks follows with 7.7 points per game and is key contributor for SAU's glass-cleaning efforts as he averages 8.0 rebounds per game.
 
Southern Arkansas has been a second-half team so far this season. The Muleriders are being outscored by an average of just over six points in the first half of games this season, but are outscoring their opposition by a total of 37 points in the game's final twenty minutes. They have outscored their opponents in the second half in all but one game this season and in five games the Muleriders have added at least 13 more points to their first half scores in the second half of those games.
 
The Tigers are averaging 68.3 points per game with a scoring margin of -0.7. Ouachita's Larenz Nero ranks fifth in Division II with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 5.0. OUA is led in scoring by Matt Stanley who is averaging 10.3 points per game, while four other players are scoring at least seven points per contest. Stanley, along with Kendarious Smith, are the team's top rebounders as both bring in 4.8 rebounds per game.