SWOSU Women's Basketball makes the hour drive down I-40 to face Southern Nazarene on Saturday in the first conference road matchup of the season. Tipoff against the Crimson Storm is set for 1:00 pm inside the Sawyer Center.

The Lady Bulldogs will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak and earn their first GAC win of the season after falling to Harding and Arkansas Tech at home last week to kickoff the conference schedule.

After a 4-0 start to the year, the Bulldogs have dropped their last three and now sit 4-3 overall and 0-2 in GAC play.  SWOSU shot 44% or better from the field in three of their four wins and have watched that number decrease to three straight games of sub-40% shooting leading into this weekend's matchup. That same trend holds true at the foul line, where SWOSU has shot sub-70% in the last three games after a collective 64-for-81 (79%) through the first four games.

In SWOSU's first two GAC games a week ago, they surrendered 35 offensive rebounds and were outrebounded by margins of 25 and 22.  

The defensive continues to give opponents fits despite recent results. Against Tech, SWOSU forced 25 turnovers – second most this season – and came away with 13 steals – tied for the most this season. They turned the ball over themselves just 12 times. It was the second game in a row they doubled up their opponent in turnover margin after forcing Harding into 16 turnovers while committing just seven themselves. The Lady Bulldogs have not lost the turnover battle through seven games this season and they have forced 20 or more turnovers five times.

Southern Nazarene enters Saturday scoring 69 points per game, fifth in the league, and is one of three teams in the GAC surrendering fewer than 60 points a game to opponents. They're led by Hannah Giddey who is scoring 15.8 points per game on 49% shooting and grabbing a league best 9.3 rebounds per game. She also leads the league with 25 blocked shots in nine games.

The Crimson Storm were last year's regular season conference champions. Three of their five from the everyday starting lineup a year ago graduated, leaving Giddey and Jena Bay (7 pts/game, 2.2 reb/game) as contributing returners. Six total players from the 30-3 squad from a year ago remain on the team in 2024-25.