• It’s the halfway point in the Great American Conference schedule and the Oklahoma women’s teams reach that point in different conditions.
⋅ East Central is firmly entrenched in third place. The Tigers got the home win on rivalry night over Southeastern, 56-53, and snapped a three-game losing streak. Staying in the top three in league play would bode well for ECU headed into the conference tournament. Catching Harding or Arkansas Tech in the regular season may not happen for any team anyway. ECU is limiting teams to just 60.2 points per game, but the Tigers’ strength may be in that they don’t turn the ball over and lead the conference in turnover margin (+6.06).
⋅ Simply making the conference tournament is now a priority for Southwestern. The Lady Dawgs were blown out in the second half at Northwestern on Tuesday, 61-31, and scored only 10 points in the second half. SWOSU falls to just 2-8 in conference play with an idle date on Saturday before traveling to Bethany to take on Southern Nazarene on Thursday, Jan. 29. With the offense seemingly on hiatus, Southwestern is going to have to do a better job of limiting the opponents second chances and shut down the lane.
⋅ Meanwhile, SNU is looking at its first chance to make it into the GAC postseason tournament, but is sitting not very comfortably in the slot for the seventh seed of eight teams at 3-7, just one game ahead of the three teams. Aminata Fall and Abby Boyd are two of the top eight scorers in the conference, but the team is putting up only 55.2 ppg in its seven GAC losses. The Crimson Storm may need to address the turnovers (19.5 per game).
⋅ Southeastern still has the second highest total of overall wins in the conference (12), but it has been since Jan. 8 that the team has been able to log one in the W column. Granted, the Storm has played the top three teams in the conference during its current four-game slide, but allowed a Ouachita team that is near the bottom of the GAC at .371 shooting from the field, make 45 percent of its shot and 40 percent from long range in a road game they should have picked up.
⋅ Northwestern is a team that is growing up right in front of us. The Rangers beat down their rivals at home, heading into a matchup with East Central on Saturday. Northwestern is 1-9 outside the GAC, but is 5-5 in league play. They are still a year removed from postseason opportunity, but the team looks to be making itself ready as the freshmen of last year are looking more mature this year as sophomores, building to what could be next year.