MAGNOLIA, Ark. – It is that time of the year again. Spring is here and so is the madness that comes with the month of March as Southern Arkansas looks to bring some madness, some parody, and maybe even some chaos to Fort Smith, Arkansas for the 2025 Women's Basketball Great American Conference Tournament.
 
The Muleriders are set to compete in the tournament as the bracket's seventh seed and will take on the second-seeded Harding Bisons on Thursday at noon for the tourney's first contest of the week.
 
A Glimpse at the Bisons
>>> The Muleriders and the Bisons are set for their second Great American Conference Tournament meeting since the league's beginning.
>>> The last and only time the two Natural State programs met in the conference tournament was nearly a decade ago when Harding defeated Southern Arkansas 80-48 in the opening round of the 2014-2015 GAC Tournament.
>>> Currently, Harding has controlled the series against the Muleriders as the group leads the all-time series 57-21 and has been victorious in the last eight outings.
>>> Coming into the season, the Bisons were picked as the conference's preseason favorites and nearly proved the preseason coaches poll to be correct as the group claimed the two-seed in the conference tournament and finished second in regular season play.
>>> The player that the seven other teams in the bracket have to plan for will be Sage Hawley as the fifth-year senior averages a double-double (18.1 ppg & 10.6 rpg) and leads the conference in seven statistical categories.
 
The Pathway to the Tourney
>>> Under first-year head coach Darrick Matthews, the Muleriders have exceeded expectations from the preseason poll as the group was voted to be tied for last in the league with the new management.
>>> Southern Arkansas' journey to the league tournament has been anything besides a cakewalk as the unit has had many up-and-down moments throughout the first season with their brand-new head coach.
>>> The Muleriders were in a very similar position last spring with the last weekend of the regular season determining if the squad were to make it to the tournament or not. While the Blue and Gold held their fate in their own hands, many had already searched for ways that the group could still make it to Fort Smith, Arkansas if the team were to drop their contests against Ouachita Baptist and Arkansas Tech. Matthews and his Muleriders had other plans however as SAU defeated both the Tigers and the Golden Suns to secure their position in the tournament on their own terms.
 
Players to Watch
>>> This group of Muleriders has shown how special they are throughout the season, as a pair of individual records have already been broken and others are in danger of being replaced.
>>> The leading scorer for the Muleriders is Qua Chambers. The senior from Plain Dealing, Louisiana has accounted for 406 points this season with a 47.6% field goal percentage, which ranks second in the Great American Conference. Chambers accounted for the vast majority of her points in the latter part of the season after recording four consecutive weekends with 40+ points and seven games with 20+ points.
>>> One of the league's greatest defensive players this season has been Marlee Bright as the junior from Amity, Arkansas leads the league in assist/turnover ratio (2.52 | 2nd Central Region | 5th DII), assists (141 | 5th Central Region | 20th DII), assists per game (5.0 | 5th Central Region | 20th DII), steals (88 | 1st Central Region | 8th DII), and steals per game (3.14 | 1st Central Region | 9th DII).
By The Numbers
88 - The number of steals that Marlee Bright has produced so far this season. With 88 steals, Bright has become the Mulerider Women's Basketball program leader for steals in a single season. Bright is also near the single-season record for assists in a season with 141. The record is 156.
54 - The number of blocks that Elena Lijo-Rodriguez has accounted for this season. The Spanish native absolutely crushed the single-season record for blocked shots as the junior outdid the previous record of 37 blocked shots in a single season that was set back in 2017-18.
 
Broadcast Information
All coverage of the Great American Conference Tournament will be covered by the GAC through the GAC Sports Network. Live stats will be available as well, and all links for live coverage will be provided at www.MuleriderAthletics.com/coverage.
 
Ticket Information
Ticketing for all Great American Conference Basketball Tournament contests will be strictly digital and the link for tickets can be found at the top of the article.