Setting the Scene
• Lady Bulldog Basketball is set to open up their postseason on Friday night in Bartlesville by taking on Arkansas-Monticello in the quarterfinals of the Great American Conference Tournament
• SWOSU claimed a share of the GAC Regular Season Championship by finishing 16-6 in the final league standings, but they dropped to the No. 3 seed in the tournament due to tiebreakers
• The first-round matchup for the Lady Dawgs is against a UAM team making their first postseason trip since 2017 and this will be the first meeting between the teams in the GAC Tournament
• SWOSU enters the postseason as the hottest team in the conference, having won seven consecutive games while going 8-1 in February to earn a share of their third consecutive conference championship
• This is the third time the Lady Bulldogs have earned the No. 3 seed in the GAC Tournament and they are 6-2 all-time as the third seed, which includes a tournament championship in 2014
• Head Coach Kelsi Musick has led her program to an all-time record of 15-5 at the GAC Tournament, which includes championships in 2012, 2014 and 2019
 
About the Opponent
(6) Arkansas-Monticello (18-10)
• UAM is making their sixth all-time appearance in the GAC Tournament and first since 2017 after
• The Cotton Blossoms more than doubled their win total from last season under first-year head coach Greg Long, who led his team to a share of sixth place in the GAC standings after being picked to finish 12th
• UAM is led by GAC Defensive Player of the Year Berniezha Tidwell, who ranks second in the league with 95 steals while also leading her team in scoring, rebounding and assists
• Defense has been a strength of the Cotton Blossoms all season and they enter the postseason with a league-leading scoring defense that holds opponents to 59.0 points per game on average
• UAM ranks ninth in the league in scoring offense, averaging 66.5 points per game while hitting a league-low 4.7 three-pointers per game on 28.7% shooting from long range
 
SWOSU Notes
• SWOSU enters the 2020 Great American Conference Tournament with an all-time record of 15-5 at the event, which includes a mark of 7-1 in the quarterfinal round
• The Lady Bulldogs have brought home three GAC Tournament Championships from Bartlesville, cutting down the nets to conclude the 2012, 2014 and 2019 events
• Junior forward Bethany Franks was named the GAC Tournament's Most Valuable Player last season after averaging 12.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.7 steals per game
• Tyra Aska was also named to the All-GAC Tournament Team last season after posting a stat line of 13.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game during the event
• This season, the Lady Bulldogs are paced by freshman Makyra Tramble, who leads the team in both scoring (15.8 ppg) and rebounding (7.7 rpg) while ranking second with 65 steals and third with 65 assists
• SWOSU leads the Great American Conference and ranks 10th in NCAA Division II with 269 made three-pointers this season, an average of 9.6 per game and they're ranked 18th nationally with a scoring average of 78.0 points per game
• Franks recorded her third double-double of the season on Senior Day, scoring a career-high 29 points in addition to 12 rebounds to help the Lady Bulldogs fend off Arkansas Tech in overtime
• Lauren Ramey matched a season-high with four made three-pointers on Thursday against Harding to finish with 15 points, her third-highest scoring game of the season
• SWOSU ranks sixth in NCAA Division II with a turnover margin of +8.6, which includes forcing 21.4 turnovers per game while giving the ball up an average of 12.8 times per game
• The Lady Bulldogs also sport the league's best assist/turnover ratio at 1.1:1, with 14.2 assists per game compared to 12.8 turnovers per contest
• Taber Beer stopped a streak of four straight games with fewer than eight points scored on Saturday as she put up 11 points against ATU to improve her average to 10.0 ppg for the year