SURPRISE, ARIZ. – The first half of Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) play officially wrapped up for OUAZ women's basketball with its 81-67 loss to Menlo College last Saturday. The tough result against the Oaks put the Spirit in seventh place in the conference at 3-6, one game out of a GSAC tournament spot.

The Spirit suffered some tough losses in the first half of league play, including losing by a total of four points to fourth-place William Jessup and sixth-place Hope International. OUAZ will have a crack at the teams in front of them again, and it starts with a road trip against two of the top four ranked teams in the country.

The Master's will open its door to OUAZ on Thursday night, and the Spirit are looking to avenge the home loss from earlier this season. They will have to work on stopping Stephanie Soares, who scored 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds, plus added four blocks and two steals.

An 80-mile trip west will bring the Spirit into Westmont College for a Saturday afternoon matchup. OUAZ was doomed by a couple of bad quarters in the first matchup, including the second quarter which saw them shoot 25% from the field.

Natasa Radovic continues to lead the Spirit, as her spectacular performances see her averaging a double-double per game (17.6 points, 10.4 rebounds). She is top 20 in the NAIA in many categories, like offensive rebounds per game (4.1, 11th) and points per game (16th).

Mickey Freeman has been outstanding since her return, averaging 7.7 points and 5.5 rebounds in six games. She earned her first double-double against Menlo last Saturday, and nearly had one against Life Pacific on Jan. 18 (10 points, nine rebounds).

Live video and stats of both games can be found at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ottawaaz/. Tipoff for Thursday's game is scheduled for 6:30pm, and Saturday's matchup is set for 2pm.