SHAWNEE, Okla. – Fresh off a regular season conference championship that secured them the No. 1 seed heading into the Great American Conference Tournament, SWOSU Women’s Basketball now turns its sights towards the postseason and a new challenge in the form of a single elimination bracket.

Excluding last year’s unique COVID format, the Lady Bulldogs have now claimed the GAC’s last four regular season crowns dating back to the 2017-18 season. They have won the postseason tournament three times and will attempt to make it four in the coming week.

The winner of the tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Though SWOSU currently ranks fourth in the latest region poll and remains in the running for an at-large bid to the NCAA dance, the Lady Dawgs can lock in their ticket and improve their regional seeding by continuing to win.

SWOSU’s first opponent in the tournament will be eight-seeded Southeastern. The Dawgs have defeated the Savage Storm twice this season – a 72-66 home victory back on December 2 and most recently a 64-50 road win on February 7.

In GAC Tournament history, the Lady Bulldogs are 1-1 against Southeastern. Those contests came in consecutive years, during the 2014-15 (L, 101-92) and 15-16 (W, 90-78) campaigns.

The Lady Bulldog offense currently ranks fourth in all of NCAA Division II in scoring, averaging 81.9 points/game.

Leading the charge on offense is reigning GAC Player of the Year Makyra Tramble who is averaging 19.8 points/game, 7.2 rebounds/game, and 5.4 assists/game. That places her second, ninth, and first around the league respectively in those categories.

Tramble does it all, by also ranking first in the conference in steals, 2.7/game, and ninth in blocked shots, 1.0/game.

Outside of Tramble, sits Lauren Ramey who is in the top-10 in the GAC in field goal percentage at 47% and is averaging 12.9 points/game. Her and Macy Gore, 10.9 points/game, have combined to connect on 107 three-pointers this season and both shoot around 36% from beyond the arc.

Two statistics that also stick out for the Dawgs are a league leading +5.47 turnover margin and 1.4 assist/turnover ratio.

With a potential win over Southeastern, SWOSU would play the winner of (4) Henderson State and (5) East Central in the semifinals. See field preview and full schedule below.

The Field

(2) Southern Nazarene (20-9, 15-7 GAC)

·         Lady Dawgs are 19-5 all-time vs SNU

·         Won 71-55, 72-60 this season over Crimson Storm

(3) Harding (18-9, 14-8 GAC)

·         Lady Dawgs are 18-13 all-time vs HU

·         Lost 77-69, won 73-60 this season against Lady Bisons

(4) Henderson State (18-10, 13-9 GAC)

·         Lady Dawgs are 18-5 all-time vs HSU

·         Won 90-78, 99-78 this season over Reddies

(5) East Central (15-11, 12-10 GAC)

·         Lady Dawgs are 34-21 all-time vs ECU

·         Won 76-50, 69-64 (OT) this season against Tigers

(6) Northwestern (15-13, 11-11 GAC)

·         Lady Dawgs are 19-3 all-time vs NWOSU

·         Lost 79-68, won 92-58 this season against Lady Rangers

(7) Arkansas Tech (14-12, 11-11 GAC)

·         14-18 all-time vs ATU

·         Won 105-71, 90-59 this season against Golden Suns

(8) Southeastern (12-16, 10-12 GAC)

·         28-26 all-time vs SE

·         Won 72-66, 64-50 this season against Savage Storm

Schedule

2022 GAC Basketball Championships

Thursday, March 3 – Quarterfinals:

Women’s Game #1: 2:15 PM – #2 Southern Nazarene vs #7 Arkansas Tech

Women’s Game #2: 8:00 PM – #1 Southwestern Oklahoma State at #8 Southeastern Oklahoma State

Friday, March 4 – Quarterfinals:

Women’s Game #3: 5:45 PM – #4 Henderson State vs #5 East Central

Women’s Game #3: 8:00 PM – #3 Harding vs #6 Northwestern Oklahoma State

Saturday, March 5 – Semifinals:

Game #3: 5:45 PM- Winner Game #2 vs Winner Game #3

Game #4: 8:00 PM – Winner Game #1 vs Winner Game #4

Sunday, March 6 – Finals:

Women’s Game #7: 3:30 PM – Winner Game #5 vs Winner Game #6