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Arkansas-Monticello (7-14, 3-13 GAC) at SWOSU (12-11, 6-10 GAC) Thursday, February 19, 7:30 pm Weatherford, Okla. (Pioneer Cellular Event Center) Live Stats  |  Watch Live  |  Listen Live SWOSU Game Notes (pdf)

Setting the Stage
- SWOSU Basketball returns to the Pioneer Cellular Event Center for their final four games of the 2014-15 regular season, beginning on Thursday night as the Bulldogs host Arkansas-Monticello
- The Bulldogs will be looking for the season sweep of the Boll Weevils following 70-63 win over UAM in Monticello back in January
- The race to qualify for the GAC Conference Tournament is heating up, with four teams having clinched a berth and six teams battling for the final four positions
- SWOSU and UAM enter the game on the outside looking in at the conference tournament, but a Bulldog victory would pull them into a tie with Henderson State for the eighth spot
- The Bulldogs are coming off a critical road win at Southern Arkansas on Saturday and they're searching for their first consecutive victories in seven games
 
The Opponent
Arkansas-Monticello (7-14, 3-13 GAC)
- An 83-70 setback against Southeastern last Thursday snapped a two-game win streak that upped their record to 7-14 on the year
- All three of their conference victories have come against teams currently in the top five of the GAC standings (Harding, East Central, Southeastern)
- Fifth-highest scoring team in the GAC, averaging 75.5 points per game, but they rank last in the conference in scoring defense, allowing opponents to score 77.4 ppg
- Thursday's game will match the bottom two teams in the conference in 3-point FG percentage with SWOSU shooting 30.5% from long range while UAM is at 30.3%
- Balanced offensive attack has four players averaging double figures in scoring, led by Sharif Hudson at 14.9 points per game
- Other top offensive threats include Richard Benedyth (12.7 ppg), Jamal Peterson (12.1 ppg) and Cameron Blue (10.7 ppg)
- Blue is also a top defensive threat, ranking third in the GAC in blocked shots with 33 (1.6 per game)
 
The Coaches
SWOSU: Bob Battisti (29-21, 2nd season; 438-317 career, 26th season)
- Bob Battisti was named the 14th head men's basketball coach in SWOSU history prior to last season after spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma Christian University
- Led the Bulldogs to a 17-10 record in his first season, marking a five-win improvement from the previous season
- Three players earned All-GAC distinction in Battisti's first season at SWOSU
- SWOSU committed the fewest turnovers in NCAA Division II in Battisti's first season with 243, an average of just 9.0 per game
- Previously spent 25 years at Northwestern Oklahoma State, coaching the men's basketball team for 21 seasons before taking over as the school's athletic director
- In 25 years as a head coach, Battisti has a career record of 438-317 (.583), including a 2-1 mark against Arkansas-Monticello as the head coach of the Bulldogs
 
Arkansas-Monticello: Kyle Tolin (7-14, 1st season)
- In his first season with the Boll Weevils after being named the 15th head men's basketball coach in UAM history in June of 2014
- Previously spent 10 years as an assistant coach at Oklahoma Baptist, a school that will join the Great American Conference and begin NCAA Division II reclassification next season
- Helped Oklahoma Baptist reach 14 straight NAIA National Tournaments, 10 as a coach and four as a player, and win the 2010 NAIA National Championship
 
Last Time Out
- Richard McCalop scored a team-high 19 points to lead the Bulldogs past Southern Arkansas 76-70 on Saturday afternoon in Magnolia
- After trailing early, SWOSU took the lead late in the first half, pushing out to a 40-35 lead in a half that saw five ties and four lead changes
- SWOSU controlled the second half, leading its entirety except when SAU tied the game at 63-63 with 3:07 to play
- After the Muleriders tied the game, SWOSU outscored SAU 13-7 down the stretch to earn the victory, snapping a three-game slide
- Trent Washington joined McCalop in double figures, scoring 16 points while Ayo Ojo and Kenyan Borders each scored nine
 
Checking the Standings
- SWOSU's victory on Saturday moved the Bulldogs within one-half game of Henderson State for eighth place in the standings after HSU suffered a setback
- The Bulldogs face the Reddies on Saturday, with HSU having an off date on Thursday and the entire week off the prepare for the game
- Arkansas-Monticello is in the conference cellar at 3-13, but still mathematically alive for the GAC Tournament
- Ouachita Baptist, East Central, Harding and Southern Arkansas have all punched their tickets to the GAC Tournament, leaving six teams battling for the four remaining spots in Bartlesville
 
SWOSU Notes
- Richard McCalop scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting against Southern Arkansas, his second-highest scoring output of the season behing a 21-point outing against SAU in Weatherford earlier this season
- Martell Collins was limited to a combined nine points and two rebounds on the Bulldogs road trip, dropping his team-leading averages to 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game
- Trent Washington has scored at least 14 points in five of six games since rejoining the starting lineup, upping his season average to 12.0 points per game
- With 11 turnovers on Saturday, the Bulldogs have now turned the ball over 228 times this season, the second-fewest in NCAA Division II while their average of 9.9 turnovers per game leads the GAC and ranks fourth in the country
- Kenyan Borders streak of scoring less than 10 points per game has reached seven games, although he has scored nine point four times in that span
- Borders dished out five assists on Saturday at SAU, giving him a team-leading 57 assists for the season
- Ayo Ojo has blocked two shots in each of the past four games, giving him 27 (1.2/game) for the year, a mark that ranks eighth in the GAC
 
Looking Ahead
- SWOSU hosts Henderson State on Saturday in a game with huge postseason implications