SHAWNEE – The start to the 2023-24 season begins in two days when Oklahoma Baptist welcome Pittsburg State and Washburn to Bison Hill for the GAC/MIAA Challenge. The Bison will play the Gorillas on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. before facing off with the Ichabods on Nov. 11 at the same time.
PSU owns a 3-0 all-time record over the green and gold which includes a 70-66 win last season. As for the Washburn matchup, OBU trails 2-1 after defeating the Ichabods 43-41 a season ago.
Starting on a High Note
Bison women's basketball fans, coaches and players have seen an uptick in seasonal success over the past couple years. During the last campaign, coach
Bo Overton's program attained 17 victories, tying for the most wins in the Division II era. There was a nine-game winning streak at one point, too. And that came after the team was picked to finish in eighth in the 2022-23 GAC Preseason Poll. Fast forward to this fall. With the return of several key players including fifth-year senior
Madison Chambers and last year's GAC Freshman of the Year
Jaedyn Getman, the Bison were slotted third in the conference's preseason coaches' poll. That is the highest-ever preseason ranking for OBU since joining the GAC full-time six years ago.
She's Back
In early April, it was announced quietly among the team and athletic department that point guard
Madison Chambers was returning. That was exciting news for a host of people, especially after what the Muldrow, Okla., native accomplished last season. The 5-foot-11 guard was named All-GAC Honorable Mention after starting all 30 games and averaging 12.7 points per game. She also posted career-bests in three-point shooting (39.7%) and field-goal percentage (43.3). Chambers also earned a spot on the GAC All-Tournament team, the school's first player to make that postseason list. The now, fifth-year senior who is back to fulfill a CoVID year will be one of the key players as the Bison look to rise even higher in 2023-24.
And She's Back Too
Jaedyn Getman had nothing short of a solid freshman season last year. The 6-foot-2 forward was the GAC's Freshman of the Year, scored 394 points, the most-ever by a Bison newcomer in the D2 era, and made her mark all over the court. Her 13.1 points per game was 15th-best in the GAC while her 84.2 free throw percentage slotted her fourth. The Stratford, Okla., native also collected 5.4 rebounds which was good for 20th. One of Getman's main focuses heading into her second year is improved three-point shooting. She did do a decent job in that realm last year, hitting 31 percent from deep.
A Class to Rule Them All
There has been excitement around this year's freshmen class dating back more than a year. As coach Overton said to the communications office last season, "just wait 'til you see the players we have coming." Their names:
Payten Conde,
Parker Stevenson,
Katy Piper,
Aubrey Marjason and
Catyn Graham. In the frontcourt is Marjason while the rest are either point or shooting guards. Conde attended Academy High School in Little River, Texas and left with almost 1,400 career points, 452 assists and 727 rebounds. She also was a First-Team All-State honoree by two different associations as a senior. Stevenson attended nearby Bethel High School and finished with 1,756 points and made over 200 three-pointers. Stevenson, too, was a multiple-time All-State selection.
For Piper, she helped direct Holliday High School in Texas to a 3A State Championship last year and finished with 1,524 points with 669 rebounds. In postseason play alone, Piper averaged 17.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. The 5-foot-11 guard was also an All-State selection as a senior and was named to multiple regional and state all-tournament teams during her career. The final guard in this class is Graham who is from Savanna, Okla. Two seasons ago, she helped Pittsburg HS to a 30-0 record. Then as a senior last year, she averaged 16.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game. As for Marjason, a 6-foot forward from Hallsville, Texas, she scored nearly 900 points in her career and pulled down 582 rebounds. She was a two-time First Team All-District selection and was named the District 15-5A Offensive Most Valuable Player in 2021-22.
Quality Depth Control
One of the benefits coming into this new season is the host of players that have seen quality minutes in recent seasons. On top of Chambers and Getman, OBU returns
Jill Leslie, who will join the team after volleyball season concludes,
Sierra Copeland,
Sydney Duncan,
Faith Wright,
Kennedy Large and
Chloe Poole. In the frontcourt, Leslie, Copeland and Duncan all played in at least 29 games last year and had some big moments while Wright, Large and Poole contributed to the backcourt.
Coach's Hope
Heading into his fourth year as head coach, one of
Bo Overton's keys to success this year is improved scoring. Last season, his team averaged 63.5 points per game. That total was tenth out of 12 teams in the GAC. The green and gold had plenty of good efforts last year, scoring at least 70 in 11 contests. However, there were also a handful of games, 12 to be exact, that the team didn't eclipse 60 points. With the added emphasis on scoring guards in the latest recruiting class, stay tuned on this front.
Free Throw Prowess
Last season, the Bison squad put together an outstanding showing at the charity stripe. They hit 77.9 percent of their freebies, a mark that was slotted No. 15 in the nation and tops in the GAC. That percentage was also the second-best by the program since it joined D2 starting in 2015-16. Among the key returners on this front are Getman (84.2), Duncan (82.4), Leslie (76.9), Chambers (76.4) and Large (75.0).
Trackster Turned Hoopster
Just a few months ago,
Lauren Lamb was a member of the Bison track and field program. Now, heading into hoops season, the speedy newcomer might be able to provide depth in the backcourt for the green and gold. While at Cashion High School, Lamb was an All-State Honorable Mention selection as a senior in 2022 and finished her career with 918 points, 375 rebounds and a free-throw percentage of 84.5 percent.
Meet Pittsburg State
Three All-MIAA selections from a season ago, including the MIAA's Freshman of the Year, highlight coach Amanda Davied's 2023-24 squad. Forward Karenna Gerber, junior guard Grace Pyle and sophomore guard Harper Schreiner are those student-athletes.
Gerber, a third-team All-MIAA selection last season, averaged 15.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a game while shooting 57.6 percent from the field.
Pyle received All-MIAA honorable mention honors, averaging 14.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.9 made threes and 0.9 steals a game and shooting 42.9 percent from the field (82.8 percent from the free throw line).
Schreiner was the MIAA Freshman of the Year and an All-MIAA honorable mention performer after averaging 10.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.5 steals a game.
In her sixth year as head coach of her alma mater after being hired to the role on May 21, 2018, Davied owns a 91-50 (.645) record. During her tenure as head coach, she has guided the Gorillas to the Division II National Tournament twice (2022-23 & 2018-19) with her debut season marking the first coach in program history to guide the program to a 20-win season.
Last season, PSU had the 13th-best scoring offense in D2 averaging 76.7 points per game. They were also 13th in free throw percentage (78.0). The Gorillas were also effective rebounders. With a rebounding margin of +7.5, they were slotted 11th in the country.
Meet Washburn
Washburn finished 2022-23 with a record of 11-17 (7-15 MIAA) and went 8-9 in Lee Arena. Guard Aubree Dewey was named an All-MIAA honorable mention after she started all 28 games and led the team with 34.1 mpg (second in MIAA), 10.7 ppg (24th), and 3.6 apg (7th) while also adding 4.6 rpg and 1.2 spg. She recorded 15 double-figure scoring games and led the team in assists 18 times.
Head Coach Lora Westling is in her second year at Washburn. She was a standout member of Washburn's women's basketball team from 2001-05 and helped the Lady Blues to the school's first NCAA Division II national championship in 2005.
Previously, she spent six seasons at Western Colorado where she compiled a record of 77-78 and led the team to back-to-back NCAA Tournament selections – the first two in program history. Westling's 77 victories are second on Western's all-time list and her 63 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference wins are tied for second in program history. Westling's first head-coaching gig came at Illinois College where she had three winning seasons and compiled a record of 38-32.
The Ichabods' offense last year was one of the main reasons they posted an 11-17 overall record. Their 57.6 scoring average was slotted 261st in the country while the team's field-goal percentage of 37.4 was 229th.
Defensively, Washburn gave itself a chance game in and game out. They ranked fifth in the MIAA in both field-goal percentage defense (38.8) and scoring defense (60.8).
