This story was originally written by Seth Olson and published in the Lawton Constitution on March 6, 2019
 
WEATHERFORD — To reach big goals, you have to talk about them.
 
That's been the mantra for Southwestern Oklahoma State's women's basketball team during the Bulldogs' impressive ongoing 27-game winning streak.
 
Before the eighth-ranked SWOSU women (27-1) won a second straight Great American Conference championship, set a new program record for wins and became the first women's basketball team in GAC history to finish unbeaten with a perfect record of 22-0, the journey tipped off with a loss.
 
A loss that shook the Bulldogs to their core.
 
"We have big goals and dreams, and losing is not a part of it," SWOSU junior guard Tyra Aska recalls the Bulldogs telling themselves in the locker room following a 68-60 season-opening loss to Emporia State in November. "That first game put a lot into perspective."
 
"That loss woke the girls up and shook them to the core," echoed Southwestern Oklahoma State head coach Kelsi Musick. "It helped them realize that every opponent is going to bring their best game so we have to elevate our game. I think the loss left a bad taste in our mouth and the girls were ready to battle after that."
 
No taste was as bitter to the Bulldogs as the 78-75 Central Regional quarterfinal loss to Fort Hays State last March, when SWOSU saw its 26-win campaign come to a screeching halt, short of the coveted Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II Tournament.
 
"In the blink of an eye, our world came crashing down," said Aska, who scored 21 points and is averaging 13.2 points per game this season.
 
Soon after the season ended, the Bulldogs began talking about their ambitious goals for the 2018-19 campaign.
 
Now, after a pair of double-digit road victories at Harding and Arkansas Tech this past weekend, the Southwestern Oklahoma State women — who are scoring 86 points per game with an 18-point margin of victory as well as a healthy plus-10 turnover margin — are confident to push the winning streak to 30 games this weekend as the Bulldogs hunt down a Great American Conference Tournament championship to accompany their league title.
 
"We have confidence in ourselves that we are a really good team. You have to have that confidence in yourself and in your team, though, to accomplish something like this," said SWOSU senior guard Hailey Tucker, who is pacing the team in scoring at 19 points per game along with 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. "I think we have a list right now and we just keep checking the goals off."
 
One of the biggest differences between this season and last is the Bulldogs' full court pressure, which has led opponents to average an abysmal 22 turnovers per game.
 
SWOSU — which also gets contributions from senior guard Hayden Priddy, who is averaging 17.1 points per game on 42 percent shooting from behind the arc in addition to a team-high 3.5 assists per game — used to rely on its offense and getting stops in the halfcourt until a home win against a ranked Lubbock Christian squad in early December when the Bulldogs forced turnovers to squeak out a 77-75 victory.
 
"That was a turning point," said coach Musick, who added that the Bulldogs' maturity level has helped them maintain such a gaudy winning streak. "That's when the girls bought in, realizing this defense was going to pay off if we keep working on it and run it right. The girls believe that now, knowing it will generate points so they don't have to worry about the offense as much."
 
 
Family of Lady Dawgs
Just last month, one of coach Musick's two sons, 5-year-old Maddox, had a meltdown and cried for nearly 20 minutes when he realized the four senior Bulldogs — Tucker, Priddy, Savannah Gray and Katie Percival — are going to graduate and soon will no longer be around.
 
"He has never understood until now because he's never been old enough," Musick said. "But Maddox has grown up with these girls who have become his big sisters. We have that family atmosphere."
 
If you walk down the hall before practices, chances are you'll see players gathered in the coaches' offices laughing or spending quality time with the young children of Musick and SWOSU assistant coach Cophie Anderson, whose kids are often roaming about the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
 
On Senior Day last month — which may not be the Bulldogs' final home game given they are in position to host the Central Regional Championships next weekend — videos played for the four seniors who each wrote a powerful, tear-jerking 'letter to my freshman self' looking back on their college basketball journey.
 
"Dear freshman Hailey, I wish that time traveling was a thing," Tucker's read. "If I could, I would travel back in time to tell you all the things that I know now. I would tell you to stop wishing you were where I am now. I'd tell you to live more in the moment — that time goes by too fast and you'll someday want to be back in your freshman shoes."
 
The seniors reminded themselves to enjoy the journey and grow — both as basketball players and young women.
 
"I don't think there was a dry eye in the building — very bittersweet," Tucker said. "This whole community is a family."
 
While the winning streak is to be praised, it takes a backseat to the emotional investments SWOSU players and coaches are developing in each other's lives.
 
"We don't just care about them on the court, but we care about them in the classroom and all aspects of their life," coach Musick said. "We try to make that known in recruiting and it speaks for itself."
 
One incoming recruit, Cyril point guard Fayth Laughlin, who led the Lady Pirates to four straight state tournaments, also noticed the family atmosphere on a recruiting visit, admiring how the Bulldogs handled their business and respected Coach Anderson and Coach Musick while also knowing how to have fun with their mentors.
 
"I immediately fell in love," Laughlin said. "It's extremely loose and they made me feel at home. I wasn't an outsider. It was as if I was a part of their team already."
 
Okies to the core
Fourteen of the 15 players on the SWOSU roster are from Oklahoma, representing an array of classes and regions across the state.
 
"High school players realize, 'Hey, there's a really good team right here in my backyard,'" said Musick, whose Bulldogs have been cheered on at home games by a handful of middle and high school girls basketball teams across the state this season. "I remind my players that someone is always watching."
 
One of Musick's former players, Lauren Ackley, who now coaches at Apache, brought her team to Weatherford. Musick's hometown of Canton also brought its high school girls team to watch.
 
"Those things matter. They think these girls are stars," coach Musick said. "We have really good crowds and the girls deserve to showcase their talents on the floor, especially doing something so special as this winning streak."
 
For one game this season, SWOSU alumni from Indiana came to watch the Bulldogs, who the players waved to before the game and talked to them after a win.
 
"They were blown away that my players acknowledged them and told me in an email how impressed they were by the type of ladies on our team," Musick said.
 
"That's what it's all about."



Tucker's return home
This weekend will be extra special for Tucker, who will return to her hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, for the GAC Tournament, which tips off this Thursday, when the top-seeded Bulldogs meet Northwestern Oklahoma State for a 5:45 p.m. tipoff in the quarterfinals.
 
"It's super cool getting to go home and play in my home gym, to be surrounded by friends and family," said Tucker who was named the Great American Conference Player of the Week on Monday for a 14th time of her career, which matches Henderson State quarterback Kevin Rodgers for the most weekly awards won by an individual in the history of the conference.
 
SWOSU has won two straight regular season GAC titles and clinched the championship this season with four games left. But the Bulldogs have yet to win the GAC Tournament
 
"Our goal is to win that tournament," coach Musick said. "If you want to reach big goals, you have to talk about them. These girls are on a mission."
 
 
Bulldog belief
Last season's ending stung, but the Emporia State loss not on the 'big goals agenda' pierced even deeper.
 
"We hate losing more than we like winning at this point," coach Musick said.
 
Defeat was no longer an option. Musick said both losses helped fuel the Bulldogs throughout the offseason and the winning streak as SWOSU realized its potential of a deep postseason run.
 
In a six-point road win at Southern Nazarene last month, coach Musick saw another sign of a promising team. Even when the Bulldogs were behind and not playing well, they didn't panic.
 
"I don't ever see fear or worry on their face this year," Musick said. "The girls show composure and have a different level of maturity, knowing we're gonna be OK."
 
That poise stems from another SWOSU season motto, "We believe."
 
This group of Bulldogs believe this season ends with a win — for they've trained themselves to do everything in their power to not lose again.
 
"I remember us talking after the Emporia loss," Tucker recalled.  
 
"That was the only one," Tucker told the Bulldogs before taking off on a 27-game winning streak. "We get one loss then we're done."