WEATHERFORD – The final week of the regular season is upon us and SWOSU Men's Basketball finds themselves right in the middle of a large cluster of teams all looking to clinch spots in the GAC Tournament. The Bulldogs host East Central Thursday before closing out the schedule Saturday down I-40 against Southern Nazarene.
The Bulldogs sit 9-11 in the Great American Conference and tied for fifth with Harding and Arkansas-Monticello. Right behind the 9-11 group is another three teams who hold 8-12 marks: East Central, Oklahoma Baptist, and Southern Arkansas.
Simply put, earning one win this week would put the Dawgs in good shape. Two wins guarantees they play their way into the tournament. Let the action commence.
SWOSU will be looking to avenge a previous loss to East Central which came all the way back in December. The Bulldogs dropped a 65-54 affair after falling behind early and trying to play catch up with the Tigers, who fended off SWOSU's second half push to earn the win.
Sitting a game back from the Bulldogs in the league standings, East Central too will be hungry for wins – setting up a great matchup in Thursday's final home game of the year. The Dawgs have won the last four matchups with ECU in Weatherford and are 8-4 against them at home overall while competing in the GAC.
After Thursday, SWOSU closes out the season against Southern Nazarene in Bethany. The Bulldogs defeated the Crimson Storm 74-63 on December 16 at home, but SNU has turned things on in the month of February. They are 6-2 in the month and currently sit one game above the clustered teams in the standings with an even 10-10 record. They'll play Northwestern in Alva on Thursday before welcoming the Bulldogs for the season finale on Saturday.
SWOSU is 3-9 against SNU in Bethany since 2012 and have lost the last three there dating back to 2021. Two of the last three contests at SNU have gone into overtime including last year's 71-63 loss.
A common theme all season has been the 75-point scoring threshold. It's stayed true all year. SWOSU is 8-0 this year if they score at least 75 points in the game. The other win came when they came up one point shy against SNU in the first matchup.
In nine wins this season, the Bulldogs are shooting 48% as a team, compared to 41% in 16 losses.
Defensively, SWOSU ranks second in the league in opponent field goal percentage, 44%, and second in opponent three-point percentage, 33%.
Over the past seven games, Jalen Johnson has averaged 17.0 points per game on 46% shooting, nearly matching SWOSU's leading scorer Ben Smith in that same span which is in line with his season average.
