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Setting the Scene
- SWOSU Women's Basketball (14-7, 10-5 GAC) had its season best four-game winning streak snapped on Thursday against Southern Nazarene 81-67 after the second-worst shooting performance of the season (32% from the field)
- The Lady Bulldogs are a perfect 7-0 at home as well as a perfect 6-0 following a loss this season, setting up for a potential bounce back against East Central on Saturday when the Dawgs host the Tigers
- After having already beaten ECU once already this year back on Jan. 12 by a score of 78-57, SWOSU will look to sweep the season series and collect their third such season sweep over a GAC foe this season
- After their loss on Thursday, the Lady Dawgs fell back to fourth place in the league standings, a half-game behind Southeastern who jumped SWOSU with a comeback win over Northwestern

The Opponent
East Central (8-12, 7-9 GAC)
- ECU has won four of its last five games, all GAC contests, coming into their meeting with SWOSU on Saturday with their only loss in OT to Ouachita
- The Tigers are tied for sixth currently in the conference standings and if the GAC Tournament started tomorrow, would be playing in Bartlesville
- East Central ranks third in the GAC in scoring defense, holding teams to 64 ppg
- Devon Branch leads the Lady Tiger offense with 13.4 ppg, shooting 32% from beyond the arc followed by Whitney Stotler with 10.9 ppg

The Coaches
SWOSU: Kelsi Musick (124-98, 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 124-98, including a mark of 10-3 against ECU
 
East Central: Matt Cole (34-41, 3rd season)
- Cole was named ECU's fourth head coach in program history in 2014
- Prior to East Central, Coach Cole spent the last 11 years as an assistant women's coach
at Northeastern State where he helped NSU to seven NCAA Tournaments, including two
Sweet 16 appearances
 
Checking the Standings
- Harding and Arkansas Tech both have punched their tickets to the GAC Postseason Tournament, ranking one and two in the league respectively followed by Southeastern who is now third after jumping SWOSU after their comeback win over Northwestern
- SWOSU ranks fourth and the only other team with an above .500 record, followed by Southern Nazarene who sits at 7-8 and a half game ahead of the 7-9 marks of Arkansas-Monticello, East Central and Henderson State
- Northwestern and Ouachita Baptist hold 6-10 records followed by Southern Arkansas and Oklahoma Baptist who round out the standings with 3-13 marks 
 
The Series
Date                       Location                           Score
*1/23/2012    Weatherford, Okla.                     W 93-55
*2/20/2012    Ada, Okla.                                W 101-72
3/2/2012        Bartlesville, Okla.                     W 81-46
*1/12/2013    Weatherford, Okla.                    L 85-94
*2/14/2013    Ada, Okla.                                W 72-68
*1/11/2014    Ada, Okla.                                L 63-73
*2/13/2014    Weatherford, Okla.                    W 93-81
3/8/2014        Bartlesville, Okla.                     W 87-83
*12/4/2014    Ada, Okla.                                 L 62-67
*1/31/2015    Weatherford, Okla.                    W 64-54
*1/14/2016    Weatherford, Okla.                    W 65-49
*2/11/2016    Ada, Okla.                                 W 74-71
3/5/2016        Bartlesville, Okla.                      W 79-63
1/12/2016      Ada, Okla.                                 W 78-57
 
GAC Era: SWOSU leads series 10-3
 
SWOSU Notes
- SWOSU had its second-worst shooting performance of the season against Southern Nazarene on Thursday, shooting 32% on 24-of-75 shooting including 15% from three-point land after going 5-for-32
- The Lady Bulldogs now have fallen behind 12+ points on the road 10 times this season with their latest 29-point deficit against SNU - the second largest margin of the season (OUA, 35)
- The good news for the Lady Dawgs is six of their final seven games will be played inside Pioneer Cellular Event Center where SWOSU is undefeated this season
- SWOSU has won five-consecutive games against ECU, dating back to 2015
- Hayden Priddy's streak of seven consecutive games without leaving the floor was snapped against SNU
- In the last four games, Hailey Tucker has gone cold from beyond the arc, shooting 20% from deep on 5-of-25 shooting - 10% lower than her season average
- Taylor Hedrick set a new career high in rebounding after coming down with seven boards against the Crimson Storm
- Nicole Middleton is SWOSU's most efficient scorer, shooting 62% from the floor in a limited 31-of-50 attempts
- SWOSU also blocked a season-best 13 shots against Southern Nazarene 

Looking Ahead
- Next week SWOSU will play three league games starting on Monday with rival Northwestern
- Thursday the Lady Dawgs will welcome Oklahoma Baptist to Weatherford before going on the road to take on Southeastern in their final road game of the regular season