GAC Tournament Semifinals

(6) SWOSU vs (2) Harding

8:00 pm || Saturday, March 9 || Shawnee, Okla. (FireLake Arena)

GAME NOTES || COVERAGE LINKS

Following SWOSU's first round upset of Northwestern, the Lady Bulldogs will shift focus to 2-seeded and No. 17/23-ranked Harding in the semifinals of the GAC Tournament.

SWOSU is now 10-2 in the GAC Quarterfinals and will put their 6-3 semifinal record on the line on Saturday at 8:00 pm inside FireLake Arena.

Winner of Saturday's matchup advances to Championship Sunday at 3:30 pm against the winner of (4) Henderson State / (1) Southern Nazarene.

SWOSU is coming off a quarter final game where they got a season high 20 points from Libbi Zinn, shot a season high 46.9% from the field, and had the fourth best three-point shooting percentage of the season at 40.9%. They pulled off the upset despite 23 turnovers, their second highest number of the season. SWOSU forced 21 themselves.
SWOSU is 4-1 against Harding in the GAC Tournament.

SWOSU/Harding split the regular season against each other with wins at each host school's venue. The Lady Dawgs fell 79-72 in Searcy before earning a 54-51 win in Weatherford just two Saturday's ago. That win snapped a five-game skid at the time and entering the tournament, was SWOSU's lone win in the last eight contests.
In the 54-51 win, SWOSU's defense held Harding to a season low 29% shooting and matched their season low in point total.

Hailey Grant has led the Lady Bulldogs in scoring in both games against Harding this season -- averaging 16.0 points on a combined 12-27 shooting. After 12 more against Northwestern, Grant (8.4 ppg) has now scored 10-plus points in five of the last seven games including a season high 19 last week against ECU.

Averi Zinn has also had success against the Lady Bisons with a 2.2 assist/turnover ratio with 11 assists and five turnovers in two games. Zinn was held under double-digit scoring for just the ninth time this season against Northwestern on Friday. One of her three eight-assist games this season came against Harding.

Libbi Zinn's 20 points (career high) against Northwestern in the quarterfinal was her first time scoring in double figures in 13 games and just the second time this season she led her team in scoring.

Against Northwestern, Mason Jones connected on four three balls for the third time this season. She has made three of more treys seven times this year. SWOSU is 5-2 when she hits three in a game. Jones combined with Libbi Zinn to knock down all nine of SWOSU's three point shots against the Rangers.

SWOSU is 10-1 this year when leading at halftime.

The Lady Bulldog defense forces 20.1 turnovers a game and is second in the GAC with a +6.21 turnover margin. SWOSU finished with more turnovers than Northwestern on Friday night, marking just the third time this year the Dawgs had more miscues than their opponent. Despite the stat, SWOSU still managed to turn the Lady Rangers over 21 times -- just above the season average.