Thursday, Jan. 9 – SWOSU at Henderson State – 1:00 pm

Arkadelphia, Ark. (Duke Wells Center)

Saturday, Jan. 11 – SWOSU at Ouachita Baptist – 1:00 pm

Arkadelphia, Ark. (Bill Vining Arena)

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The SWOSU Women's Basketball team (6-6, 2-4 GAC) will travel to Arkadelphia, Arkansas this week, playing Henderson State on Thursday before crossing the road to play Ouachita Baptist on Saturday to close out a four-game road trip.

Thursday's game time against Henderson State was pushed up to 1:00 pm (from the originally scheduled 5:30 pm) due to looming winter weather in the forecast. 

Last year, the Lady Dawgs' memorable run to the GAC Tournament championship game concluded against a red-hot Henderson State team who took home their first GAC Tournament title in school history. It was SWOSU's third loss of the season to HSU, running up a current streak of five consecutive losses to the Reddies that dates back to the '22-23 season. However, SWOSU controls the all-time series 19-10 dating back to 2009.

Henderson State (5-7, 3-3 GAC) is led by three standout players in Brynlee Huggins (16.2 ppg), Jadah Pickens (15.7 ppg) and Natalie Cardenas (14.3 ppg). Huggins is fourth in the conference in scoring per game.

The Lady Bulldogs come into the game on a short two game skid and are looking to find their winning ways again before next week's home stand. In their previous game against Southeastern Oklahoma State, it was an ice cold fourth quarter that was the achilles heel. They were outscored 19-6 in the frame and did not make a bucket until 1:22 left in the game. The Storm also led in a large way in free throw disparity, having 25 makes on 27 attempts, both the most SWOSU has allowed all year and the second most of any team in GAC play.

Averi Zinn, who is the leading scorer for SWOSU at 11.6 points per game, ranks in top 10 in the conference in assists (8th; 3.2 apg), Steals (4th; 2.1 spg) and free throw percentage (4th; 88.2%).

Layni Zinn has attempted 35 three pointers – making 16 – which puts her at 45.7% for the year and good enough for fourth best in the conference.

Ouachita Baptist enters the week on a two-game win streak with victories over non-conference foe Arkansas-Fort Smith and Arkansas Tech, and are currently 5-5 overall with one win in conference. They'll take on Northwestern on Thursday before welcoming the Dawgs on Saturday. The Tigers are led by Madeleine Tipton who averages 15.4 points per game which is sixth in the GAC.

One area where SWOSU could take advantage of both of this week's opponents is in turnover margin. The Lady Bulldogs have a league best +7.08 turnover margin, causing over 20 turnovers per game. The +7.08 margin puts the Lady Dawgs 14th in the nation. Henderson State is ranked eighth in the GAC with a -0.83 margin and Ouachita is last with a -3.20. SWOSU will look to turn this in their favor to gain more possessions on each team.

SWOSU historically has found success against the Tigers, holding an overall record at 25-8 since 1998. Seven of those eight losses have come on the road and the last time these two teams met, Ouachita got the best of SWOSU, winning 67-62. 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.