MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Women's Basketball team will head to Oklahoma to finish out the final two games of their four-game road stint. The Muleriders will tipoff against the Oklahoma Baptist Lady Bison at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 26 in Shawnee before they finish things off against the Southern Nazarene Savage Storm in Bethany at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 28. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com. Southern Arkansas will face the two Oklahoma teams for the first time this season with hopes of defeating the two top-three ranked conference teams.
Southern Arkansas is coming off a 76-63 win over UAM this past Monday where they came back from a 13-point deficit and flipped the script to attain a 13-point victory. Senior Diamond Morris (22), freshman Brooklin Brown (14) and junior Addy Tremie (10) recorded double digits for the Muleriders in the Monday night win. Morris continues to lead Mulerider scoring with 223 points at an average 13.1 per game.
Oklahoma Baptist is coming off of a 61-84 loss to SNU in Shawnee where their conference record fell to 7-4. The Bison have lost their last two home games and are 1-4 in their last five games. Their most recent win was a two-point victory over Northwestern Oklahoma. Three Bison are averaging double digits with Erika Ankney leading the squad at 16.9 ppg. Ankney, a transfer student from Oklahoma City University ranks sixth in the GAC with average points and leads the conference with her .471 (16 3FG/ 34 FGA) three-point field goal percentage. She has recorded double digits in 12 of the 13 games this season and has made three or more threes in her last two outings.
Oklahoma Baptist's average 71.7 points per game ranks second in the GAC behind the Muleriders' 83.6 average. Oklahoma Baptist's 35.6% three-point field goal percentage just tops the Muleriders' 34.9%, but SAU is averaging more than double made threes per game.
The Bison and Muleriders last went head-to-head in February 2022 where OBU just beat the Muleriders 62-61. The Bison returned the second and third leading scorers from said game- Jill Leslie and Melissa Southard. Leslie is averaging 5.0 ppg and has one double-double on the year while Southard is averaging 4.3 ppg after recording double digit scoring figures on Monday for the second time this season. The Muleriders and Bison split 1-1 last year as the Muleriders took the January game 76-69. Morris scored 13 points in the February matchup and 15 in January while senior Kylie Morris led Mulerider scoring in the January game with 18 points.
The Southern Nazarene Savage Storm will play UAM on Thursday before they take on Southern Arkansas on Saturday. The Storm is 10-1 in conference play and has won their last three games with their most recent being the 23-point win over OBU. Southern Nazarene saw double digit scoring efforts from five athletes including their leading scorer Georgia Adams. Adams, a junior from Australia, is averaging 15.4 points per game to rank in the top-ten in the conference.
Southern Nazarene's defensive scoring ranks first in the GAC as they hold opponents to an average 57.4 points per game, while their opponent three-point field goal percentage ranks second (behind SAU) at 28.3%. SNU's scoring margin is just one of two that ranks higher than the Muleriders' (9.9 SNU/ 7.6 SAU). SNU's Hannah Giddey ranks third in the GAC with a 55.8 field goal percentage while the team's 42.8 field goal percentage ranks third in the conference as well.
SNU took both matchups from SAU in the 2021-22 season, shutting the Muleriders down 72-79 in January in Magnolia and 98-52 in Bethany in February. Only one Mulerider saw double digit scoring figured in the February loss- Kylie Warren (12 pts). Both Morris and senior Mychala Linzy saw double digits in the January matchup.
