| Thursday, Jan. 9 – SWOSU at Henderson State – 3:00 pm |
| Arkadelphia, Ark. (Duke Wells Center) |
| Saturday, Jan. 11 – SWOSU at Ouachita Baptist – 3:00 pm |
| Arkadelphia, Ark. (Bill Vining Arena) |
| COVERAGE LINKS |
SWOSU Men's Basketball (7-4, 4-2 GAC) is coming off an impressive win over Southeastern Oklahoma State to open up the new year and get back in the win column. They'll face Henderson State and Ouachita this week looking to build further momentum after capturing the first road win of the season against the Savage Storm. The games will wrap up a three-game road swing before the Dawgs return home next week.
Thursday's matchup with the Reddies will come earlier than originally scheduled after a time change was announced due to the weather forecast.
Tucker Shepherd (22 pts, 5-10 3PT) and
Elijah Williams (21 pts, 4-6 3PT) both stepped up in a huge way against Southeastern, both posting career highs in points and three pointers made.
Both Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist took home a GAC Player of the Week for the week of January 6th. Henderson State's Matthew Mayes was the Defensive Player of the Week. He gathered five steals, four rebounds and two blocks in the Reddies last game. The five steals matched a season high and gave him six games with four steals or more. His 3.1 steals per game lead the GAC and rank seventh in Division II. Ouachita's Hobert Grayson took home the Player of the Week honor after a 29-point performance in a win against Arkansas Tech. He ranks seventh in the country in scoring at 24.8 points per game.
Henderson State is ranked third in the GAC with their only loss being an 86-75 defeat at the hands of Harding. The Reddies are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the conference, grabbing 12.9 per game which puts them at No. 2 just behind Southern Arkansas. They average 3.08 blocks per game (2nd in GAC) and 9.83 steals per game which is the top notch in the GAC.
SWOSU has posted a 6-6 away record when facing Henderson State in Arkadelphia and are currently on a two-game win streak in the series after sweeping the Reddies last regular season. Historically, HSU leads the series 15-10 dating back to 2012.
Tobias Roland is averaging a team high 15.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He had 14 points in last week's matchup with the Savage Storm. Senior
MJ Warrior keeps his impressive season going by averaging five assists per game which is second in the conference along with 11.3 points a contest.
Elijah Williams is shooting 52.9% from beyond the three-point line, and although his small sample size it is good enough for third in the conference for the whole season and number one in just GAC games at 64.3%.
Ouachita brings in the top offense in the league at 88.2 points per game thanks to the number one three-point percentage by a team at 41.5% and second most makes with 9.4 per game. They average the most number of assists at 16.92 and boast the best assist/turnover ratio at 1.75
The series against the Tigers stands at 18-16 in favor of Ouachita. They took care of the Bulldogs in their last matchup with a score of 77-66 in Arkadelphia. The home team has won in each of the last four matchups, with the sides splitting the regular series season in each of the last two seasons.
