Setting the Stage
The SWOSU women's basketball team will be searching for their first three-game win streak of the season on Thursday when they meet up with Southern Nazarene at the Sawyer Center in Bethany. The Lady Bulldogs are coming off a weekend sweep of Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist last week, which improved SWOSU to 8-6 (5-3 GAC) on the year.
Southern Nazarene has won six of their last games and they are coming off a 90-85 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State last Saturday. The Lady Bulldogs swept both meetings against the Crimson Storm last season and will be looking to stay unblemished against SNU as members of the Great American Conference.
The Coaches
Kelsi Musick is in her fifth season leading the SWOSU women's basketball program. She has improved the teams win total in all four seasons she's been at SWOSU, taking the team from three wins her first season to 25 in her fourth year and she is the two-time defending Great American Conference Coach of the Year. Musick's career record at SWOSU is 66-59 and she is 2-0 against Southern Nazarene after the Lady Bulldogs swept the season series last year.
Derek Dorris is in his second season at Southern Nazarene after a decorated high school coaching career, most recently at Southmoore HS in Moore, Okla. Last season, he led the Crimson Storm to the NCCAA National Championship and a 21-10 overall record and his two-year record at SNU is 29-17.
Last Time Out
The Southwestern Oklahoma State University women's basketball team used a big second half to secure a second consecutive victory on Saturday afternoon, a 93-72 win over Ouachita Baptist in the team's final game at Rankin Williams Fieldhouse.
Sarina Sayama and
Michelle Fisher paved the way for the Lady Bulldogs offense, combining to score 52 points and connect on nine three-pointers. Sayama scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field while hitting 5-of-10 from long range. Fisher poured in 24 points and recorded the first double-double of her career with 11 rebounds.
Chelsea Bates scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out a season-best six assists in 34 minutes of action while
Jaimee Cohen came off the bench and nearly recorded her first career double-double, finishing with nine points and 10 rebounds. As a team, SWOSU outrebounded Ouachita Baptist 47-32, giving them their largest rebounding margin advantage of the season.
OBU played the game tight early on and even took the lead once midway through the second half before the Lady Bulldogs pulled away. The Tigers got 22 points from Nashia James and 15 from Elise Holman in the losing effort.
Last Time vs Southern Nazarene (January 24, 2013)
A double-double from senior
Elizabeth Lay and 21 points from
MaRiah Oyler helped push the Southwestern Oklahoma State women's team past Southern Nazarene 86-74 on Thursday (Jan. 24) evening at Rankin Williams Fieldhouse in Weatherford.
Lay scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to help the Bulldogs offset the monster night from Aminata Fall, who scored 24 points, grabbed 21 rebounds and blocked six shots for SNU.
MaRiah Oyler hit 4-of-8 attempts from long range along with 7-of-10 free throws to add 21 points in 36 minutes for SWOSU.
Kimmi Sawatzky chipped in 16 points off the bench while
Natalia Gibson also had 10 for the Dawgs, who picked up their third straight win to improve to 12-4 (7-3 GAC) on the year.
SWOSU picked up the season sweep of Southern Nazarene, a provisional member of the Great American Conference, by shooting 36.5% (27-of-74) from the field and 45.5% (10-of-22) from long distance. Both teams grabbed 49 rebounds and SWOSU had 10 steals to five for SNU.
Checking the Standings
Consecutive wins last week over Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist have allowed the Lady Bulldogs to move back into second place in the Great American Conference standings, where they are tied with Southeastern Oklahoma State at 5-3. Both teams are looking up at undefeated Harding, who is 17-0 (9-0 GAC) on the year and ranked sixth in NCAA Division II this week. The next four teams behind SWOSU are within one game of second place, including Southern Nazarene, who is tied with East Central for fourth place at 5-4.
Player of the Week
SWOSU's
Sarina Sayama has been named the Great American Conference Player of the Week after helping her Lady Bulldog team to two much-needed conference victories last week. The award was announced by the conference office on Monday afternoon.
Sayama, who has been in the starting lineup for the past four games, scored 17 points against Henderson State on Thursday, helping the Lady Bulldogs snap a two-game losing skid with a 90-82 victory over the Lady Reddies. She topped that performance on Saturday against Ouachita Baptist, scoring a career-high 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting – including 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range – as SWOSU turned in a winning 93-72 performance against the Tigers.
For the week, Sayama averaged 22.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 59.2% (16-for-27) from the field and 50% (6-for-12) from three-point range. She has now upped her season scoring average to 11.6 points per game, the second-best mark on the team.
This is the first career GAC weekly award for Sayama, a senior from Hanford, Calif., and the first for a Lady Bulldog since
Kimmi Sawatzky earned the honor on December 17, 2012.
Scouting the Opponent
With wins in six of their last eight games, Southern Nazarene has put themselves in contention near the top of the balanced Great American Conference. The Crimson Storm defeated Southeastern Oklahoma State 90-85 last Saturday to improve to 8-7 on the year and a share of fourth place in the conference standings at 5-4.
SNU is led by a trio of top scorers which includes Kristin Milster, Aminata Fall and Callee Cox, all of whom are averaging more than 15.0 points per game and rank among the top 10 scorers in the GAC. Beyond that, however, SNU has no player averaging more than 7.0 points per game. Fall also leads the GAC in rebounding (13.8/game) and blocked shots (2.5/game) while Cox is the top free throw shooter in the conference, connecting on 88.9% (40-of-45) of her attempts from the stripe this season.
Quick Hits
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Sarina Sayama's 28 points against Ouachita Baptist was a career high and the second-most by a SWOSU player this season (31,
Michelle Fisher vs. Northeastern State, Nov. 13)
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Michelle Fisher recorded the second double-double of her career against OBU, scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Her only other previous double-double came against Arkansas-Monticello (28 points, 12 rebounds) on November 29, 2012
- SWOSU outrebounded Ouachita Baptist 47-32 on Saturday, the largest rebounding margin for the team this season
- SWOSU ranks third nationally in 3-point field goals per game (9.3) and fifth in scoring offense (85.4 points per game)
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Michelle Fisher has now scored 1,188 points in her career, good for 7th all-time in SWOSU history. She is also the second-leading scorer in Great American Conference history with 999 points during the past three seasons
- Southern Nazarene and SWOSU rank first and second in the GAC in free throw shooting percentage
- SNU leads the conference in blocked shots with 85 and Aminata Fall is the conference leader with 35 blocked shots. The Lady Bulldogs team has combined to block 32 shots this season
Looking Ahead
The much-anticipated debut of the Pioneer Cellular Event Center in Weatherford comes on Saturday as the Lady Bulldogs host Northwestern Oklahoma State. Admission is free for the game, which will tipoff at 5:30 pm.
