Magnolia, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Women's Basketball team will host their first of three final home games this weekend with Southern Nazarene and Oklahoma Baptist coming to town. SNU stands as the top team in the conference, posting a 17-1 record. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 16 at the Panther Arena at Magnolia High School. Oklahoma Baptist sits two games ahead of the Muleriders with a 9-9 GAC record and will face the UAM Cotton Blossoms in Monticello on Thursday before heading east to Magnolia for a 1 p.m. tipoff on Saturday, February 18. Live coverage links will be available at muleriderathletics.com.
On January 28, SAU lost by just a single point in a 75-74 effort against SNU to post the second most points of any GAC team against the Crimson Storm (75, Harding). The tight matchup in Bethany saw four double digit Mulerider scoring efforts. Senior Jessica Jones led all scoring with 18 points while freshman Brooklin Brown recorded 15 points and seniors Mychala Linzy and Diamond Morris each had a dozen. In the January matchup, the Muleriders recorded a season-high 56.5 three-point percentage and sunk 13 shots from behind the arc. They recorded a 51.8% shooting clip that was a season-high until the Muleriders' most recent game where they shot 52.2%.
The international athlete heavy SNU roster has dismissed ten-straight GAC teams with their last two wins only being by three or less points. They started off the week with a 57-55 win over Oklahoma Baptist and rounded out play last week with a 57-54 win against Arkansas Tech. Both scoring figures represent the second fewest points in a win for the Crimson Storm this season (47, SOSU). Four SNU athletes recorded double digit scoring figures in the OK Baptist win while only two hit double digits against Tech. They combined for just ten three pointers between the two games while SAU sunk ten in their most recent game alone.
Southern Nazarene leads the conference with an opponent 57.4 points scoring average and posts the second-best scoring margin of the GAC at +9.3. They post a -0.75 turnover margin, averaging 16.5 turnovers per game.
Georgia Adams leads SNU scoring with an average 14.8 ppg while teammate Cassandra Awatt trails just a single point behind at 13.8 ppg. The duo leads Hannah Giddey who represents the final SNU athlete to average double digit scoring figures. All three posted double digits (Adams 17, Giddey 16, Awatt 15) in the January matchup against SAU alongside Emily Monaghan (13) and Payton Jones (12). Awatt ranks second in the conference with an average 8.9 rebounds per game and has recorded nine double doubles, the second most in the conference and 36th most in the nation. Giddey has recorded eight double doubles as well to rank 49th in the country. Additionally, Giddey has recorded the most blocked shots in the conference and is averaging 3.0 per game.
The Muleriders lost to Oklahoma Baptist on January 26 in Shawnee. In the 64-73 loss, Linzy sunk five threes to lead team scoring with 15 points while Brown recorded 14 points and Jones a dozen. OBU's Jill Leslie led all scoring with 21 points to lead three other Bison who scored double digits.
OBU is currently on a five-game losing streak with their most recent loss occurring Monday to SNU. They lost 47-66 to Harding last Saturday and have failed to record more than 56 points in the five consecutive losses. Jaedyn Getman (14) and Jill Leslie (10) were the lone Bison to post double digits against SNU while Madison Chambers (15) and Kennedy Larges (11) completed the feat against Harding. Of the Bison who have played in every game, Chambers and Getman lead scoring, both averaging just under 13 points per game.
OK Baptist posts a -1.1 scoring margin with an offense that averages 63.9 ppg and a defense that is allowing 65.0 points. The Bison are recording a three point shooting clip of 35.2 which ranks second in the GAC, just one slot ahead of the Muleriders. Fortunately for the three-point heavy Mulerider squad, the Bison rank 12th in opponent 3-pt field goal percentage to allow opponents to shoot at a conference high 34.7%.
