Setting the Scene
- The Lady Bulldogs are coming off of a thrilling 80-79 win over No. 21-ranked Harding and will look to keep that momentum up against an even higher ranked squad as No. 17 Arkansas Tech comes to town on Saturday
- SWOSU won the first matchup between these two teams back on November 17, erasing a 19-point deficit to beat the Golden Suns 72-69
- The Dawgs are 2-3 in games played in Weatherford against ATU dating back to 2012, and prior to November's win in Russellville, Weatherford was the only location SWOSU had collected any wins over the Golden Suns (Tech leads series 10-3 since 2012)
- As of Friday, Jan. 27, SWOSU sits in fourth place in the Great American Conference rankings, a half game in front of Henderson State and a half game behind Southeastern
- The Lady Dawgs are looking to sweep the season series against Tech for the first time in the GAC's history

The Opponent
#17/RV Arkansas Tech (14-2, 10-2 GAC)
- The Golden Suns currently rank second in the Great American Conference with a 10-2 conference record after their win over Northwestern on Thursday night, one game behind Harding who's in first
- ATU has the second-best scoring defense in the conference by holding opponents to to 60.3 points per game and has the highest scoring margin in the league of +14.3 overall (74.5 offense, 60.3 defense)
- Cheyenne North (13.8) and Kelsey McClure (13.1) are the Golden Suns' leading scorers

The Coaches
SWOSU: Kelsi Musick (121-97, 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 121-97, including a mark of 3-12 against ATU
 
#17 Arkansas Tech: Dave Wilbers (232-60, 10th)
- Has led Tech to the NCAA Division II Tournament in each of his first three seasons, including
back-to-back Elite Eight finishes in 2009-10 and 2010-11. His team has reached the NCAA
Tournament six times
- Wilbers' teams have won 3 regular season titles, as well as one GAC tournament title
 
The Series
Date               Location                                Score
 *1/12/2012   Weatherford, Okla.                   W 85-82
 *2/9/2012     Russellville, Ark.                      L 87-101
 *1/5/2013     Russellville, Ark.                      L 74-79
 *2/7/2013     Weatherford, Okla.                   L 76-82
 3/10/2013     Bartlesville, Okla.                    L 66-70 (OT)
 *1/4/2014     Weatherford, Okla.                  W 89-71
 *2/6/2014     Russellville, Ark.                     L 54-78
 *12/17/2014  Russellville, Ark.                    L 52-97
 *2/5/2015     Weatherford, Okla.                  L 62-64 (OT)
 *11/19/2015  Weatherford, Okla.                  L 73-94
 *1/28/2016   Russellville, Ark.                     L 69-91
3/6/2016        Bartlesville, Okla.                  L 85-106
*11/17/2016  Russellville, Ark.                     W 72-69
 
*GAC Meeting
Arkansas Tech leads series 10-3 since 2012
 
In Weatherford: SWOSU leads series 3-2
In Russellville: ATU leads series 5-1
In Bartlesville: ATU leads series 2-0

Checking the Standings
- After their loss to SWOSU, Harding now is now not perfect in GAC play but still sits atop the standings at 11-1, a game in front of Arkansas Tech who is 10-2 and three games past Southeastern's 8-8 mark
- SWOSU sits alone in fourth at 7-4, then Henderson State at 7-5 who is the only other team to have an above .500 slate in league play
- SNU places sixth with their 5-6 mark while Northwestern is a half-game back with an extra loss at 5-7
-UAM, OUA and ECU possess 4-8 records while OBU and SAU are at 3-9
 
SWOSU Notes
- The win over Harding on Thursday night makes SWOSU 2-1 against ranked opponents this season, with wins over #25 Arkansas Tech and #21 Harding and a loss against #4 Emporia State at the beginning of the season
- The Lady Bulldogs still remain perfect at home, holding a 6-0 record in Weatherford
- SWOSU is also perfect in 'bounce back' games this season, posting an unscathed 6-0 record in the game following a loss after their latest win over HU after the trip up at Okla. Baptist
- On Thursday, Taylor Hedrick had one of her best performances as a Bulldog after tying her season-high scoring mark of 18 points on 5-of-10 (50%) shooting from the field including 4-for-6 (67%) from beyond the arc
- Hailey Tucker scored right at her season average of 18.8, after putting up 19 points and grabbing seven rebounds on the night
- Hayden Priddy played all 40 minutes of the game for the fourth-consecutive game, but scored only eight points which snapped her streak of 10-straight games of at least 10 points and her even more impressive streak of the last four games where she posted 20+ points
- SWOSU holds the highest scoring offense in the GAC, averaging 79.9 points per game, nearly five points more than Henderson State's second best 75.2

Looking Ahead
- SWOSU will begin a three-game spurt away from home, starting with Southern Arkansas on Feb. 2 (Thurs.) and moving to Arkansas-Monticello on Feb. 4 (Sat.)
- The following week, the Dawgs head up I40 to Southern Nazarene Feb. 9 (Thurs.) before returning to the Pioneer Cellular Event Center to host East Central on Feb. 11 (Sat.)