UAFS women's basketball coach Louis Whorton recently released the Lady Lions' regular-season schedule, which features 26 games and a variety of in-state and in-region opponents.
It's a balanced schedule that Whorton is pretty happy about.
"If you can get an even number of games home and away, then that's about as good as it's going to get," Whorton said. "It's a good balanced schedule. When we first started this adventure into Division II, we played an abundance of our games on the road because our conference was so small, but now that we have more conference games, we are able to pick and choose."
Prior to the start of the regular season, UAFS will host Evangel University in a preseason exhibition game at 7 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the Stubblefield Center and will play an exhibition game at NCAA Division I Mississippi State on Nov. 10.
The Lady Lions will play seven nonconference games, including home games against Cameron University (Nov. 14), Ouachita Baptist (Nov. 18), Southwestern Oklahoma State (Nov. 20), Northeastern State (Nov. 25), Henderson State (Dec. 20) and Ecclesia College (Feb. 26) and road games against the University of Central Oklahoma (Nov. 29) and Midwestern State University (Dec. 3).
"You're conference schedule is always going to be the most important. We play so many conference games and start the conference season so early that you better have some tough games early to get you ready for it," Whorton said.
"We just happen to be in a part of the country where there is an abundance of really good Division II basketball, whether you go to Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri or Kansas. Finding good teams to play isn't all that difficult. We are playing some teams that historically have good programs and will be extremely competitive."
UAFS' game against Southwestern Oklahoma State was a late addition to the schedule. Originally, UAFS was scheduled to play Arkansas Tech University, but Whorton said Tech backed out of the agreement.
"One thing we are unhappy with is that Arkansas Tech first said it was going to play us and then decided not to. That made it difficult to find another opponent," Whorton said. "We picked up Southwestern Oklahoma, which is by and large a bigger challenge and a better team."
UAFS will play Heartland Conference home games against Rogers State (Dec. 18), St. Mary's (Jan. 8), Texas A&M International (Jan. 10), Oklahoma Christian (Jan. 22), Newman University (Jan. 24), the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (Jan. 29), St. Edward's (Jan. 31), Lubbock Christian (Feb. 12) and Oklahoma Panhandle State (Feb. 14).
UAFS will have conference road games at St. Edward's (Jan. 1), the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (Jan. 3), Oklahoma Panhandle State (Jan. 15), Lubbock Christian University (Jan. 17), Texas A&M International (Feb. 5), St. Mary's University (Feb. 7), Newman University (Feb. 19), Oklahoma Christian University (Feb. 21) and Rogers State (Feb. 28).
