6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13
Abe Lemons Arena
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University and Southern Nazarene renew hostilities in the most heated rivalry in NAIA Division I women's basketball.
OCU and Southern Nazarene have combined for 24 Sooner Athletic Conference championships, 16 of 17 SAC Tournament titles and 12 NAIA Division I championships. The two played for the national championship each year from 2002-04, with the Stars capturing the NAIA title in 2002.
Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 students and free to OCU students, faculty and staff with their ID.
ABOUT THE STARS: OCUsocked Oklahoma Christian 94-55 on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena in the Backyard Brawl. The Stars (13-0, 8-0 SAC) surpassed 90 points in a game for the sixth time this season.
Starr Fairbanks, a 6-foot-2 senior from Cincinnati, totaled a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. She knocked down 9 of her 11 shots from the field. Fairbanks records 11.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.
Donica Cosby, a 5-8 senior from Coldwater, Miss., rang up 13 points, five rebounds and six assists off the bench. Cosby, a 2010 first-team all-American and SAC newcomer of the year, averages 9.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.00 steals a game. Lauren Gober, a 6-2 sophomore from Newcastle, Okla., had 13 points and five rebounds. She sank three 3-pointers. Gober, the 2010 SAC freshman of the year, leads OCU with 13.4 points and 5.2 rebounds a game.
OCU leads NAIA Division I with a 50.4 percent team shooting percentage and an average victory margin of 35.3 points a game. The Stars also rank second with 20.0 assists per game. To see where OCU stacks up statistically in the NAIA, click here.
The Stars were second in the latest NAIA Division I rankings. SAC coaches placed OCU as the heavy favorite to win the league title. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 11 times. Five-time national champion OCU entered the season tied for the most wins in NAIA women's basketball since 2000-01.
Southern Nazarene holds the edge in the overall series 35-30. Gober sank a jumper with 5.3 seconds left to bring the Stars a 75-74 win March 4 in the SAC Tournament quarterfinals in Bethany, Okla., in the most previous meeting between the two teams.
ABOUT THE CRIMSON STORM: Southern Nazarene defeated Wayland Baptist (Texas) 78-66 on Saturday in Plainview, Texas. Southern Nazarene (12-3, 6-1 SAC) finished the contest on a 12-3 run and hit 10 consecutive free throws in the final 3:22.
Logan Martin, a 5-9 junior, spearheaded the Crimson Storm with 21 points, four rebounds and six assists. Martin, the daughter of SNU athletic director Bobby Martin, averages 14.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists a game. Abbey Marra, a 6-1 junior, supplied 15 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots. Marra, the SAC player of the week, contributes 10.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.87 blocks a game.
The Crimson Storm are ranked 20th in the NAIA. Southern Nazarene had been projected to finish tied for fourth place in the SAC alongside Oklahoma Christian and Wayland Baptist (Texas) in the preseason by league coaches.
ABOUT THE COACHES: Rob Edmisson has posted a stellar 163-26 record in his sixth season at OCU and a 465-145 record overall in his 21st season as a head coach. Edmisson, a two-time SAC coach of the year, has led the Stars to SAC regular-season championships three times and three SAC Tournament titles. Edmisson coached the only player drafted into the WNBA from OCU, Mariam Sy. He won 192 games at Hutchinson (Kan.) and 110 as a high-school coach in Kansas.
Lori Carter owns a 180-71 record in her seventh season guiding Southern Nazarene. Including three seasons at St. Gregory's, Carter has a 219-124 record as a head coach. Carter, the SAC coach of the year in 2001, 2007 and 2009, played for SNU from 1989-92 and served as an assistant at OCU from 1996-98 before leading the Storm to the 2004 NAIA championship.
QUOTABLE: “We've got some highlight-type players. The good thing is our kids are very smart about when they do it. We could be trying to show a little bit a lot, but we don't. When you've got Desiree Jeffries and Taylor Booze and Donica Cosby on the floor at the same time, there aren't a lot of Division I teams that have those three good of guards.” – Edmisson
FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest on OCU athletics through several ways.
Be sure to catch the OCU Athletics Update video program weekly on ocusports.com, the OCU YouTube Channel or on OCU Athletics' Facebook page. Click here to see the latest edition or see our video channel in the upper right-hand corner of our home page.
Listen to past game broadcasts and pregame and postgame interviews on the OCU pod center by clicking here.
Check out OCU's 2010-11 women's basketball media guide by clicking here.
Know when the game is happening and get scores and highlights following by calling the OCU athletics hotline at (405) 208-5400. Get conference scores and highlights by calling the SAC Hotline at (405) 878-2110.
ON THE AIR: The game will be broadcast via the OCU athletics web site. Greg Merick serves as the play-by-play man, while Andrew Himes will be the analyst. Click here to listen to the broadcast, here for the live stats and here to access the video stream.
To order the video on ocusports.com/showcase, click on "Women's Basketball vs. Southern Nazarene." Then either enter a user name and password or select "Sign up for a new all-access subscription."
