The second half of the Great American Conference season will start with the East Central University women's basketball team hosting Northwestern Oklahoma State, Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Kerr Activities Center at 1 p.m.

Game Notes

The Broadcast
ECU's radio home for Tigers basketball in 2012-13 is Ada's KXFC, 105.5, FM 'The X-Factor'. Kenny Morrison returns to broadcast the games for his 18th season. Morrison, a 1987 ECU graduate, spent two seasons doing color prior to taking over the play-by-play duties during the 1997-98 season.  

The Coverage
Fans who can't be at the game can find links to live stats, live video (if available) and the KXFC radio broadcast on ECUTigers.com.  Go to the men's basketball schedule page. Fans can listen to the radio broadcast online or through the FREE KXFC App available in ITunes, Google Stores where apps are sold and www.kxfcradio.com.

Scouting Northwestern
The Rangers are 6-10 overall and 5-5 in the GAC after earning a 30-point win over Southwestern Oklahoma State on rivalry night in the GAC.  Despite having a losing overall record, NWOSU has kept things close having only a -4.0 scoring a -5.9 rebounding margin for the year.  The Rangers are also close in all the statistical categories, with aa .402 to .424 shooting disadvantage being the biggest difference.

NWOSU has one player in double digits in the scoring column and three more between eight and nine points per game.  Kalea King leads the team with 10.1 points and adds 2.6 boards, a .414 overall shooting and .360 three-point shooting mark, 27 assists and 26 steals.  Jonae Isaac is next on the list with 9.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, while shooting .403 from the field, .333 from beyond the arc and adding 30 assists and 31 steals.

Against the Rangers
Earlier this season, the Tigers came back from Alva, Okla., with a 63-48 win (Dec. 6).  The key to the victory for ECU was three-point shooting.  The Tigers went 8-of-17 (47.1%) and allowed just a 3-of-17 (17.6%) mark by the Rangers.

ECU was led by senior Taylor Fischer, who tallied 19 points.  Senior Dilan Webster had a remarkable night as well, with 15 points, eight boards and four blocks, while becoming the 13th member of the 1,000 Point Club at ECU.  Senior Ashleigh Kelman-Poto added 11 points and seven boards.

Relina Johnson and Kamera Bozeman each garnered 10 points for NWOSU, while Jonna Gregory added eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

The Series
The Tigers currently own a 23-11 advantage in the all-time series with the Rangers, after winning the last seven games.  ECU has gone 8-1 since joining the NCAA and has a 10-5 mark when playing in Ada.

Coming off the Bench
Most players get excited and do better when they move from an off the bench role to a starting spot, but the opposite has been true for senior Ashleigh Kelman-Poto.  She has created a great spark coming off the bench for the Tigers.  Kelman-Poto started the first five games of the season and was averaging 8.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, but in the games as the first player off the bench she has increased her output to 11.4 points and 5.8 boards per game.

Rogers Making Noise
Freshman Kendal Rogers may have seen action in all 15 of the Tigers games this season, but she made the most of her minutes against No. 15 Arkansas Tech.  The Davis, Okla., native garnered a career-high 10 points, including six free throws and added four rebounds an assist and a block.

Tigers Leaving Their Mark
Along with having one of the best records in the NCAA at 11-5, the Tigers are ranked in the top-30 in three categories and have three players ranked in one category individually in the top-100.  ECU is making the most noise in the turnover column, as they are ranked No. 1 with just 10.3 turnovers per game.  The Tigers are also No. 7 in assist/turnover ratio (1.27) and No. 12 in turnover margin (6.06).

Senior Erin Walling is ranked No. 56 in ATR (1.71), while fellow senior Taylor Fischer is No. 41 in three-point field-goal percentage (41.0).  The final member in the top-100 is senior Dilan Webster at No. 56 in blocks per game (1.69) and No. 68 in field-goal percentage (50.2).  

Resetting the Record Books
Senior Dilan Webster may be the leading blocker for the Tigers, but she is also making a mark for herself in the scoring columns.  In the Dec. 6 game against Northwestern, Webster became the 13th player at ECU to earn 1,000 points, currently with 1,128.  She is also among five active players in the Great American Conference that have over 800 points and become the fifth player in GAC history to hit the milestone.

Taylor Shaking it Up
Senior Taylor Fischer has moved into her starting role for ECU with strong numbers compared to a season ago.  In 2013-14, Fischer averaged 4.4 points and 1.9 rebounds per game and so far in 2014-15 she is netting 12.4 points and 3.2 boards per game.

Fischer Player of the Week
Senior Taylor Fischer has earned the first honor of the season for the Tigers, being named the Great American Conference Player of the Week for Dec. 8.  Fischer pushed the Tigers to a 4-0 mark in the GAC as she averaged 17.5 points per game in victories against Southwestern Oklahoma State and Northwestern Oklahoma State last week. Against the Bulldogs, she scored 16 points with three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Against the Rangers, she scored 19 points and she made five 3-point field goals.

First Game/First Win
First-year head coach Matt Cole started out his head coaching career the best way a coach can, with a win in his first game when the Tigers defeated Rogers State 57-54 (Nov. 15, 2014).

Already Atop the Leader Board
Senior Dilan Webster has been a force to deal with on the blocks, as she became the ECU all-time leading blocker before her junior season (2013-14).  Webster tallied 30 more blocks a year ago and has 27 this season to move her own school record to 153 career blocks.

Up Next
The Tigers will have a light schedule next week, with just one game, Saturday, Jan. 31 at Southwestern Oklahoma State at 1 p.m.

Up Next in Kerr Activities Center
ECU will then return home to face Henderson State (Feb. 5) and Arkansas-Monticello (Feb. 7) at the Kerr Activities Center.  Thursday's game against HSU is set for 5:30 p.m. and Saturday's against UAM starts at 1 p.m.