2025 Great American Conference Tournament

Quarterfinals - (6) SWOSU vs (3) Harding

Friday, March 7 • 8:00 pm • Fort Smith, Ark. (Southside Arena)

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SWOSU Men's Basketball is ready to take on the Bisons inside Southside Arena in the quarterfinal round of the GAC Tournament on Friday, March 7 at 8:00 pm. It will be the final quarterfinal game of the tournament.

Harding and SWOSU have never met in the GAC Tournament, but they have split the two games these teams have played this season, with SWOSU winning on December 5th, 81-67, and then Harding coming out on top on February 1st, 78-61, with both teams defending their own home court. Since 1998, Harding leads the series 17-15; these teams have never met on a neutral floor.

The Bisons are led by four double-digit scoring players: Kevin McBride (15.1 PPG - 10th in GAC), Sam Smith (14.9 PPG – 11th in GAC), Rylie Marshall (13.8 PPG – 12th in GAC), and Josh Denton (10.9 PPG). As a team, they have the second-ranked offense with 79.2 points per game on 48.1% shooting, which is also second in the conference. They have the number one three-point shooting in the conference with 10.1 makes per game (1st in GAC) on 39.1% (tied 1st in GAC).

In the GAC Tournament, the Dawgs are 4-3 in the quarterfinals, 2-2 in the semifinals, and 1-1 in the championship game. Their lone title came back in 2022 as a seven seed, as the men's and women's teams both made it out as GAC Champions.

The Bulldogs will need to win away from home to capture the elusive GAC title; they are just 5-9 away from the confines of the PEC and will look to ride the momentum of winning their last three road games.

SWOSU has been a sixth seed two times: first in 2013, where they defeated Arkansas-Monticello 77-69 before losing to the two seed Arkansas Tech, and then last year as a six seed, the Bulldogs fell to the hands of Northwestern in the opening round, 82-74.

After the Bulldogs fell to 5-9 in conference play and sat in the nine spot in the GAC, looking from the outside in to make it to the postseason, SWOSU knocked off seven straight wins for the longest win streak since 2015-2016 and built their way into the six seed to finish the season 12-10 in conference and 15-12 overall. Brett Weiberg, in his second year coaching the Dawgs, has already secured five more wins than his inaugural season and is looking to capture even more heading into this weekend.

During the Dawgs' seven-game win streak, they averaged 76.3 points per game; in the other 15 games, they averaged just 64.5, for an almost 12-point increase.

When SWOSU outrebounds their opponent, they are a perfect 11-0 on the year.

MJ Warrior needs 15 assists to tie SWOSU's Division II career assists record; he enters this week with 302 career assists and is averaging 5.3 assists per game, which is second in the conference. He puts in 11.5 points per game and a team-high 1.5 steals a game, which puts him inside the top 10 in the GAC.

Tobias Roland is the leading scorer for the Bulldogs with 12.9 points per game. He shoots the ball at 49% (15th in the conference) and averages 1.1 assists to put him in the top 25 players in the conference.

Eli Al-Debaran brings in 12.1 points a game while making a team-high two three-point makes a game on just over five attempts.

Elijah Williams has four 20+ point games and is coming off a game where he had a career-high in points (23) and rebounds (12) for his first double-double of the year in a win over East Central. On the season, he averages 11.3 points a game on 51.3% shooting (12th in GAC) and 43.9% (4th in GAC) shooting from beyond the three-point line.

If SWOSU makes it out of the quarterfinal round, they will play the winner of (2) Ouachita Baptist and (7) Northwestern Oklahoma State, who beat the Dawgs in the first round in 2024.

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