The East Central University women's basketball team will be playing in their fifth-straight Great American Conference Championship Tournament, March 3-6 in Bartlesville, Okla.  The Tigers claimed the No. 7 seed at this year's event and will face No. 2 Harding at 2:15, Friday, March 4 at Bruin Fieldhouse.

Game Notes

The Broadcast
ECU's radio home for Tigers basketball in 2015-16 is Ada's KXFC, 105.5, FM 'The X-Factor'. Kenny Morrison returns to broadcast the games for his 19th 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 women'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.

Against The Tournament Field
Of the seven other teams in the GAC Tournament field, the Tigers went 2-0 against Southeastern, 1-1 vs. Harding, Arkansas-Monticello and Henderson State, and 0-2 vs. Southwestern, Arkansas Tech and Southern Arkansas.

Juniors Courtney Cowan and Whitney Stotler led the Tigers against Harding this season.  Cowan averaged 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, while adding 14 assists.  Stotler added 10.5 points and 5.0 boards per game.

Earning Post Season Honors
Junior Jalyn Jackson became the sixth ECU player in the last four seasons to earn Great American Conference post seasons honors, as she was named to the 2016 GAC Women's Basketball Honorable Mention Team.

Jackson finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in offensive rebounds (3.8), No. 5 in rebounds (8.6), No. 7 in field goal percentage (.523), No. 7 in steals (1.6) and No. 9 in defensive rebounds (4.8).

Making the Tournament
With the win over Northwestern (Feb. 20), the Tigers claimed a spot in their fifth-straight GAC Championship Tournament.  ECU will have to wait until the end of this week's action to find out their seed an opponent for the first round of the tournament, Friday, March 4 in Bartlesville, Okla.

Mariah's Weekend
Sophomore Mariah Meyer had a strong weekend against Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello.  Meyer led the Tigers with 10.0 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, while shooting .471 from the floor.  Those numbers included a career high 13 points, four steals and five made field goals against SAU and seven rebounds against UAM.

Jackson Player of the Week
After helping ECU to a four-game winning streak and recording three-straight double-doubles, junior Jalyn Jackson has been named the GAC Player of the Week for Jan. 26.

Prior to the week, Jackson had averaged 5.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game on 43.8 percent shooting. In the three wins for the Tigers, she averaged 13.0 points, 11.7 rebounds and made 17-of-26 shots. The Oklahoma City, Okla., native also hit the game-winning basket and tallied six steals against Northwestern Oklahoma State.

Career Weekend for the Tigers
All but two players on the active roster this season recorded at least one new career high over the weekend, with sophomore Aalyiah Blakely leading the way with four.  She reset marks for points (17), rebounds (9), steals (3) and field goals (6).  Junior Jalyn Jackson also added three career-bests, by recording 10 points in both of ECU's victories on five made shots and adding three blocks against SWOSU.

Blakely On the Court
The Tigers got a boost from the bench at the break, as sophomore Aalyiah Blakely was cleared to play after sitting out a year due to NCAA transfer rules.    In her first game for ECU she tallied seven points, five rebounds and added an assist.

Blakely came to the Tigers in the Spring 2015 semester from Oklahoma Baptist.  She saw limited action in just four games with the Bison.  Blakely is a native of Ada, Okla., where she helped the Cougars to a state tournament appearance as a senior.

Adair Making Moves
Sophomore Alexa Adair might have played in all 27 games for ECU as a freshman, but she was behind a group of five seniors and averaged just 2.7 points and 1.9 rebounds per game.  In 2015-16 she has been forced into a leading role for the Tigers and has responded, averaging over 10 points and around four rebounds per game.  Adair even set career highs in the scoring column in two-straight games, with 20 against Southern Arkansas and then 28 against Arkansas-Monticello.  She has also set new career highs for rebounds (10), field goals (9), three-point field goals (6) and free throws (6).