SHAWNEE – Excitement is building for the next edition of Oklahoma Baptist women's basketball whose 2023-24 season is about five weeks away. A year ago, the Bison finished 17-13, had a nine-game winning streak and won their first Great American Conference Tournament game.
Competition for Head Coach
Bo Overton's team starts Nov. 10 against Pittsburg State as the Bison host the GAC-MIAA Challenge. Over the course of the season, OBU will play 28 games.
"I believe this schedule will test us early," Overton said. "There are two good Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association schools at home and two good Lone Star Conference teams on the road. We also know how tough Northeastern State will be after losing to them last season. Plus, Midwestern State will be a competitive matchup after going down to the wire at their place last year. I really wanted to make sure this schedule prepared us for our league competition."
After its season-opening matchup with PSU, OBU will play Washburn on Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. Those games are a part of four straight to start the season at the Noble Complex. The two that follow are Northeastern State (Nov. 16) and Midwestern State (Nov. 21).
OBU will hit the road for its next non-conference affairs. During St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic, the Bison will play Texas A&M-Kingsville and the host Rattlers on Nov. 24 and 25, respectively, in San Antonio, Texas.
GAC competition starts after that. The Bison will open against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Nov. 30 before playing three conference contests in December. Those come at Northwestern Oklahoma State on Dec. 2, at Southeastern Oklahoma State on Dec. 9 and at home versus East Central on Dec. 16.
The start of 2024 will bring a road trip to Arkadelphia, Ark. OBU faces Ouachita on Jan. 4 and Henderson State on Jan. 6. A week later, the green and gold will return home and face Arkansas Tech (Jan. 11) and Harding (Jan. 13).
Over the remainder of the month, the Bison will be on the road for three of four games. That includes dates with Arkansas-Monticello (Jan. 18), Southern Arkansas (Jan. 20) and SWOSU (Jan. 27). In between those road contests is a home date on Jan. 25 against last year's GAC Tournament Champion Southern Nazarene.
In February, the Bison will play six of their nine games at the Noble Complex. That starts on Feb. 1 with Henderson State before a Feb. 3 date with Ouachita.
A weekend later, OBU will head to Arkansas one more time to play Harding (Feb. 8) and ATU (Feb. 10). The team's last road game of the month takes place on Feb. 15 at SNU. After that, OBU will host four consecutive games: Feb. 17 against NWOSU, Feb. 22 against SAU, Feb. 24 versus UAM and on Feb. 29 against Southeastern.
Finally, the team's regular-season ender comes March 2 at East Central.
Dates and location of the GAC Tournament will be announced later.
