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SWOSU (6-4, 3-1 GAC) at Southeastern Oklahoma State (7-3, 4-0 GAC) Thursday, January 9, 5:30 pm Durant, Okla. (Bloomer Sullivan Arena) Live Stats  |  Watch Live  |  Listen Live SWOSU Game Notes

 
Setting the Stage
      The SWOSU women's basketball team is looking up at two teams in the Great American Conference standings and the Lady Bulldogs will get a chance to pull even with one of them on Thursday night when they travel to Durant, Okla., to face Southeastern Oklahoma State.
      After suffering their first conference loss last Thursday, the Lady Bulldogs defeated Arkansas Tech on Saturday to pull into a third-place tie with Henderson State. SWOSU will be looking for their fifth consecutive victory over the Savage Storm on Thursday and a third straight victory against SOSU in Durant.
 
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 64-57 with a 4-4 record against Southeastern Oklahoma State, which includes four straight victories during the past two seasons.
      Darin Grover has been the head coach at Southeastern Oklahoma State since 2005, leading the Savage Storm to a 120-86 record and two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Last Time Out
      Kylie Boggess scored a career-high 22 points and notched her fourth career double-double with 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Bulldogs to a big 89-71 victory over Arkansas Tech on Saturday afternoon.
      Michelle Fisher, Sarah Mendoza and Taryn Sayama all joined Boggess in double figures as SWOSU picked up their first win over Arkansas Tech in their last five meetings. Fisher, who finished with 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting, set a new SWOSU career-record for three-point field goals made when she connected on the 179th deep ball of her career with 7:48 to play in the game. She surpassed former teammate MaRiah Oyler, who had 178 three's in her career from 2009-12.
      Mendoza finished with 12 points and put pressure on the Arkansas Tech defense from the start. She was 2-of-7 from the field but connected on all eight of her free throw attempts. Sayama scored in double figures for the fourth straight game, chipping in 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting.
 
Last Time vs Southeastern (February 16, 2013)
      The Southwestern Oklahoma State women's basketball team picked up their third consecutive win on Saturday (Feb. 16), defeating Southeastern Oklahoma State 84-81 to improve to 18-5 (13-4 GAC) on the year.
      SWOSU, who finishes the regular season 10-2 in true road games, overcame an eight-point deficit in the second have to complete the season sweep of SEOSU.
      On a night when some of the regulars for SWOSU were struggling from the field, Taryn Sayama came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points in 22 minutes. Sayama hit 7-of-17 shots and 5-of-6 free throws to lead the Lady Dawgs. Michelle Fisher had 18 points and Kylie Boggess scored 10 for SWOSU while Elizabeth Lay added eight points and 12 rebounds.
 
Checking the Standings
      Two teams remain undefeated and atop the Great American Conference standings heading into this weekend. One of them, Harding, handed SWOSU their only loss while the other, Southeastern Oklahoma State, is Thursday night's opponent. Harding and Southeastern are both 4-0 and leading the conference with SWOSU and Henderson State one game behind at 3-1.
 
Record Setter
      Michelle Fisher has hit multiple three-point field goals in eight of ten games this season, but it was her lone three pointer against Arkansas Tech which put her atop the SWOSU career list. Fisher has now connected on 179 threes in her career, surpassing the record of 178 held by her former teammate MaRiah Oyler.
      Fisher is the leading scorer for SWOSU, averaging 17.0 points per game, a mark that ranks her fifth in the Great American Conference. She is second in the GAC in three-pointers made with 30 and she also ranks high in the conference in three-point percentage (41.4%) and free throw percentage (86.7%). The senior from Mustang, Okla., surpassed the 1,000-point career scoring mark earlier this season and she has a current total of 1,101 points scored during her career.
 
Scouting the Opponent
      Picked seventh in the GAC preseason poll, Southeastern Oklahoma State has run off four straight wins to open the conference season. The strength of the Savage Storm is at the defensive end of the floor, where they are holding opponents to 63.0 points per game and they hold the best field goal percentage defense (34.4%) and three-point defense (24.2%) in the conference.
      Offensively, Southeastern is led by Haley Schaefer and Breana Small-Peppers, who each average north of 11.5 points per game. Both players also rank in the top ten in the GAC in rebounding, with Schaefer leading the squad with an average of 8.0 boards per game.
 
Pioneer Cellular Event Center Update
      It was announced on December 20 that the first event in the new Pioneer Cellular Event Center (PCEC) on the campus of Southwestern Oklahoma State University will be January 20 when the West Central Basketball Tournament takes place throughout the week on the Weatherford campus.
      SWOSU's men's and women's basketball teams will play their opening games in the PCEC on Saturday, January 25, when Northwestern Oklahoma State University comes to Weatherford for a 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. doubleheader.
 
Early Signees
      Head Coach Kelsi Musick announced that the Lady Bulldogs have signed two high school student-athletes – Jade Jones and Morgan Vogt – during the early fall signing period back in December.
      Jones and Vogt both hail from the state of Oklahoma and they have earned various accolades, including all-state honors last season and both are preseason all-state and VYPE Top 100 selections heading into their senior seasons. Jones, a 5-6 guard from Pond Creek, and Vogt, a 5-8 guard from Okarche, will graduate next May and join the Lady Bulldogs for the 2014-15 season.
 
Quick Hits
- SWOSU has played two of the eight remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division II, falling to Colorado Mesa 82-68 (Nov. 9) and Harding 95-69 (Jan. 2).
- SWOSU ranks fourth nationally, scoring an average of 87.2 points per game
- Kylie Boggess recorded the fourth double-double of her career against Arkansas Tech with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Jessica Penner is the only other SWOSU player to notch a double-double this season (11 pts, 10 reb vs. UCO, Nov. 27)
- Lady Bulldogs have won consecutive games just one time this season (at UAM, 11-21 & at SAU, 11-23)
- Sarah Mendoza ranks third in the GAC with 33 assists, an average of 3.7 per game
- Taryn Sayama is averaging 12.0 points per game in conference play, the second-best mark on the team
 
Looking Ahead
     The road swing continues on Saturday as the Lady Bulldogs visit Ada for a meeting with East Central in a game that will tipoff at 2:00 pm.