Lady Muleriders playing NSU today in Oklahoma

SAU Sports Information

After a weekend swing into Oklahoma for their first two Great American Conference games of the young season, the Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders are in the Sooner State today for an in-region non-conference clash with Northeastern State of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

In Tahlequah, Okla., tip-off inside the NSU Event Center is set for 2 p.m.

Today's meeting with NSU is the third game against an MIAA opponent for Southern Arkansas (0-4, 0-2 GAC) this season after opening the year in St. Louis against MIAA opponents Lindenwood and Lincoln.

The Lady Muleriders, through four games, are averaging just over 64 points per contest and are shooting a collective 40.9 percent from the field.

SAU's 77 percent shooting from the charity stripe is the third-best mark in the GAC as is the squad's 3.8 blocked shots per game.

Northeastern State (2-1, 0-0 MIAA) owns wins over the GAC's Northwestern Oklahoma and the Heartland Conference's Rogers State, while its lone loss this season is to the GAC's Southeastern Oklahoma.

The Riverhawks enter this afternoon's meeting averaging 73.3 points per game behind 43.2 percent shooting from the floor. NSU converts almost 36 percent of its three-point tries and averages seven makes from deep per game. Northeastern State has proven to take care of the basketball in the early going of the season ranking second in the MIAA in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.24.

The last time these two teams met was in December of 2016 when Southern Arkansas picked up a 73-65 overtime win against the Riverhawks in Magnolia.

Kimberly Crown leads the Lady Muleriders in scoring averaging 15.3 points per game and owns the second-best shooting clip at 51.9percent (8th/GAC) behind Olivia McWilliams' team-leading 52.9 percent shooting mark (6th/GAC).

McWilliams follows Crown in scoring with 10.8 points per game and is coming off a 22-point performance against Oklahoma Baptist. Crown's points per game mark is the seventh-most in the Great American Conference and McWilliams' average is currently tied for 28th.

Crown is the lone Lady Mulerider with ten or more free throw attempts and owns a 78.3 percent (18-of-23) mark at the line.

Crown's 7.3 rebounds per game is the seventh-best average in the league and also leads the team, while Tuana Dinç's 4.0 per game are the second-most. The duo has also swatted a combined nine shots and each average 1.3 blocks per game. Erin Brinkley and Sue Key also rank in the top 15 in blocked shots per game in the GAC.

Anna Djedjemel is the leading assister averaging 2.5 per contest and she joins McWilliams in averaging 2.0 steals per game which ranks tied for 11th in the league.

Three players currently average double figures in scoring led by Destiny Strange's 14.0 points per game. Cenia Hayes follows with 13.7 points and Lauryn Blevins adds 13.0.

After today, the Lady Muleriders will play their home opener a week from Thursday against East Central University inside the W.T. Watson Center.

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