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Setting the Scene
- SWOSU Women's Basketball (10-6, 6-4 GAC) will be tested this week against the GAC's top-two teams, first hosting the Harding Lady Bisons on Thursday inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center at 5:30 pm
- The Lady Bulldogs will look to avenge their 76-72 loss to HU that came earlier this season back on November 19 in Searcy
- SWOSU holds a 3-2 record against Harding in Weatherford since the beginning of the Great American Conference dating back to 2012
- The two foes split the series last season after SWOSU fell 85-74 at home and won 79-77 on the road to collect their first ever win in Searcy
-  The Dawgs now sit in fifth place in the GAC standings with a 6-4 league record after their latest trip up at Oklahoma Baptist last Saturday

The Opponent
#21/RV Harding (14-2, 11-0 GAC)
- The Lady Bisons find themselves ranked this week for the first time this season, coming in at No. 21 in the WBCA coaches' poll and receiving votes in the D2SIDA top-25 poll
- HU comes into their SWOSU contest riding an eight-game winning streak that dates back to December 6
- Harding has three players averaging double-digit scoring led by Sydney Layrock's 12.9 ppg followed by Caroline Hogue with 11.5 ppg and A'ndrea Haney with 11.3 ppg
- HU leads the GAC in defense holding opponents to just 60.2 points per game

The Coaches
SWOSU: Kelsi Musick (120-97, 8th season)
- Two-time GAC Coach of the Year, winning back-to-back honors for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons and she has led the Lady Bulldogs to three 20-win seasons
- Musick has coached one All-American and 15 All-GAC selections, including one Player of the Year (Darcie Dick, 2012) and one Freshman of the Year (Hailey Tucker, 2016)
- Musick has led SWOSU to the GAC Tournament Championship games with two GAC Tournament Championships (2012, 2014) and two NCAA Division II Tournament appearances (2013, 2014) to her credit
- In eight seasons at SWOSU, Musick has a career record of 120-97, including a mark of 7-7 against HU
 
Harding: Tim Kirby (224-109, 12th season)
- Has led the Lady Bisons to 10-straight conference tournament berths including GAC regular-season championships in '14 and '15, qualifying for the Div. II Tournament both times
- Coached 25 all-conference players, two player of the years and three freshmen of the year
 
The Series
Date               Location                                Score
*1/14/2012      Weatherford, Okla.                  W 66-61
 *2/11/2012     Searcy, Ark.                            L 54-73
 3/4/2012        Bartlesville, Okla.                   W 69-58
 *1/3/2013       Searcy, Ark.                           L 61-69
 *2/9/2013       Weatherford, Okla.                  W 84-69
 3/9/2013        Bartlesville, Okla.                    W 82-68
 *1/2/2014       Weatherford, Okla.                  L 69-95
 *2/8/2014       Searcy, Ark.                           L 74-89
 3/9/2014         Bartlesville, Okla.                   W 78-74
 *11/22/2014    Searcy, Ark.                           L 69-105
 *2/7/2015       Weatherford, Okla.                  W 78-65
 *11/21/2015    Weatherford, Okla.                  L 74-85
*1/30/2016       Searcy, Ark.                          W 79-77
*11/19/2016     Searcy, Ark.                           L 72-76
 
*GAC meeting
SWOSU leads series 3-2 in Weatherford
HU leads series 5-1 in Searcy
Series tied 7-7 overall

SWOSU Notes
- The Lady Bulldogs continued their trend of falling behind by large deficits on the road against Oklahoma Baptist last Saturday, trailing by as many as 23 in the game and falling to OBU 81-79 after failing to get a last-second shot away for a potential tie or game winner
- SWOSU now has fallen behind by 12+ points nine times this season, all of which have come away from the friendly confines of Weatherford 
- The Lady Dawgs are 3-6 in such games, with come-back wins over Northeastern State (trailing 12), Henderson State (trailing 16) and #25/19 Arkansas Tech (trailing 19)
- Hayden Priddy had a career scoring night against OBU, netting 28 points on 8-of-19 shooting (42%)
- Priddy played all 120 minutes in the three conference games SWOSU played last week, never leaving the floor
- Hailey Tucker still leads the GAC in both the scoring (18.8) and rebounding (9.8) categories after scoring 22 against OBU, but dropped her rebounding average back down to single digits after collecting just six boards on Sat. making her just shy of averaging a double-double
- Tucker and Priddy both have scored at least 20 points in the last four contests
- SWOSU is one of four teams in the GAC that average eight three-point shots made per game (8.2), ranking third overall with 131 total through 16 games

Looking Ahead
- SWOSU will play in the D2 National Showcase on Saturday against Arkansas Tech starting at 11:00 am inside Pioneer Cellular Event Center
- The Lady Dawgs will then hit the road to Arkansas next week to face Southern Arkansas on Feb. 2 and Arkansas Monticello on Feb. 4