The Missouri Western women's basketball team returns home this week as they wrap up the regular season with three home games.  It starts with Central Oklahoma inside the MWSU Fieldhouse on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.  The Griffons will try and stop a two-game skid as they lost at Washburn, 51-41, and at Emporia State, 77-68, last week.

MWSU is still in the hunt to make the MIAA Tournament as they are one game back of Northwest Missouri State for the No. 8 seed, and only eight teams make the tournament this season.  Northwest does own the tiebreaker over the Griffons so they will need some help to get to the postseason.

This is the only meeting between Missouri Western and Central Oklahoma as this game was originally scheduled for January 23, but was postponed due to MWSU pausing all team activities.  The Bronchos are in fifth place right now in the MIAA standings as they're 13-6.  They've won four straight games and have gone 11-3 since a 2-3 start to the season.  Kelsey Johnson has led UCO most of the season as he is averaging 18.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.  Brooke Rayner (9.4 P) and Jaci Littell (8.4 P) are their second and third leading scorers, and Avery Allen averages 4.1 assists per game.  Guy Hardaker is in his 15th season as the head coach of the Bronchos and he has a career record of 280-155.

Missouri Western leads the all-time series 7-5 over Central Oklahoma, including a 2-1 record inside the MWSU Fieldhosue.  The Bronchos have won the last two meetings, but MWSU won five of the previous six matchups before that.  The last game in St. Joseph was during the 2017-18 season and the Griffons won 71-59.  

FINDING THEIR OFFENSE
The Griffons have been more consistently offensive as they've shot 41.3% of better in four of their last five games.  In those four games, they averaged 71.3 points per game and shot 45.3% (107-236) from the field and 37.5% (27-72) from the three-point line.  MWSU made 25 or more field goals in those four games after doing that four times the entire season.  They did that only four times in their first 14 games.  Individually, Asia McCoy and Brionna Budgetts have led the way for the Griffons.  McCoy is averaging 14.7 points and 5.0 rebounds over her last three games, while Budgetts has averaged 12.2 points over the last five.

DEFENDING THE 3
The Griffons are third in the MIAA in three-point field goal percentage defense (28.3%).  Only three opponents have shot better than 40% from three this season.  Western has held 13 teams to under 40% shooting overall and they've held 13 opponents to 67 points or less this season.

FORCING TURNOVERS
Missouri Western has forced 19 or more turnovers six times this season and 14 or more in 13 games.  They are first in the MIAA in turnovers forced per game (16.7) after forcing ESU to committ 18 turnovers on Saturday.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Missouri Western is relying on many young players this season after graduating six seniors and losing all five starters off their 21-8 team last season.  The Griffons have nine first-year players and just six that played in a Griffon uniform prior to this season.

MINUTES PLAYED PER CLASS
Freshman - 1609 (42.3% of teams total minutes)
Sophomore - 743 (19.6%)
Junior - 455 (12.0%)
Senior - 993 (26.1%)

MINUTES PLAYED PER YEAR OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PROGRAM
1st Year – 2340 (61.36 of teams total min. played)
2nd Year – 1361 (35.8%)
3rd Year – 99 (2.6%)

POINTS SCORED PER CLASS
Freshman - 430 (37.6% of teams total points)
Sophomore - 313 (27.3%)
Junior - 158 (13.8%)
Senior - 244 (21.3%)
 
POINTS SCORED PER YEAR OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PROGRAM
1st Year – 725 (63.3% of teams total points scored)
2nd Year – 393 (34.3%)
3rd Year – 27 (2.4%)