Men Ready For Tourney Run
March 2, 2009
WEATHERFORD, Okla. -Southwestern Oklahoma State University begins what it hopes will be a lengthy run through the Lone Star Conference men's basketball tournament when the Bulldogs meet Angelo State University Thursday.
The SWOSU-ASU game begins at 12 noon and is the first of four first-round matchups that will be played that day inside the new Bruin Fieldhouse in Bartlesville, Okla. Defending LSC champion Central Oklahoma will play Tarleton State University at 2:30 p.m. followed by Texas A&M-Commerce versus Texas A&M-Kingsville at 6 p.m. Later, Midwestern State will play Cameron in the final game at 8:30 p.m. The men's semifinals are scheduled for Saturday afternoon with the tournament championship slated for Sunday at 1 p.m. The winner will receive an automatic berth in the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament later this month.
SWOSU, who is making its sixth consecutive appearance in the men's tournament, enter the contest with a 17-10 regular-season record and the owners of the No. 3 seed in the LSC's North Division. ASU is 20-7 and finished as the No. 2 seed in the South Division. The two teams met once earlier this year with the Rams holding on for an 88-85 victory in Weatherford on Dec. 13.
The Bulldogs will be led by Coach Todd Thurman who announced earlier this week that he would be stepping down as the team's coach to concentrate full time on his duties as the school's athletic director. Even with his impending departure, Thurman's announcement should have little effect on a team that relies on a rotation of six seniors as its primary scoring options.
SWOSU has found considerable success this year using a small lineup that has shown a particular fondness for the three-point line. The Bulldogs lead the LSC in three-pointers made with 270, 40 more than its nearest competitor. Guards Kenneth White, Kendall Smith and Clarke Hale rank third, fourth and fifth in the league in made three-pointers and collectively score an average of 45 points, more than 60% of the team's total.
The Bulldogs couple their long-range shooting abilities with the tough, physical play of forward Jerard Campbell who is second on the team in scoring averaging 13.6 points per game and leads in rebounds averaging 7.6 per game. He has twice been named the LSC North Player-of-the-Week.
Defensively, SWOSU has perhaps the best on-ball defender around with guard Abdullah Lawal who owns multiple conference and league records for steals in a season and in a career. His 4.4 thefts per game are the best in NCAA Division II and among the best marks ever recorded.
The game will be broadcast on KWEY FM 95.5 FM with John Liddle calling all the play-by-play action. A free live webstream of the game will be also shown www.lonestarconference.tv with veteran announcer Chris Needham calling all the action.