6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15
USAO Fieldhouse in Chickasha, Okla.
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University hits the road to face Sooner Athletic Conference rival USAO.
ABOUT THE STARS: OCU remained undefeated with a 73-57 victory over archrival Southern Nazarene. The Stars (14-0, 9-0 SAC) pocketed 14 steals and took advantage of 25 SNU turnovers to score 25 points.
Donica Cosby, a 5-foot-8 senior from Coldwater, Miss., surpassed her season high with 26 points to go with four rebounds, four assists and two steals. She shot 9-for-16 from the field and 3-for-6 on 3-pointers. Cosby, a 2010 first-team all-American and SAC newcomer of the year, averages 11.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.00 steals.
Starr Fairbanks, a 6-2 senior from Cincinnati, registered 19 points and eight rebounds. She hit 7 of 14 shots from the floor. Fairbanks adds 11.8 points and 4.0 rebounds a game to go with a 61.6 percent shooting percentage. Lauren Gober, a 6-2 sophomore from Newcastle, Okla., chipped in 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a career-high six steals. Gober, the 2010 SAC freshman of the year, leads OCU with 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds a game.
OCU leads NAIA Division I with a 49.8 percent team shooting percentage and an average victory margin of 33.9 points a game. The Stars also rank second with 19.8 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.
OCU leads the all-time series against USAO 40-3. The Stars posted a 95-58 romp over USAO on Feb. 22, 2010 at Abe Lemons Arena in the most previous meeting.
ABOUT THE LADY DROVERS: Mid-America Christian edged USAO 62-59 on Thursday in Oklahoma City. BerTabitha Bailey scored to cut Mid-America's lead to three points with seven seconds left, but USAO (8-7, 4-5 SAC) failed to capitalize on two Mid-America turnovers at the end of the game.
Tiffany Jupin, a 5-7 senior, served as USAO's ringleader with 17 points and five rebounds. Jupin nailed five treys Thursday. She averages 7.5 points and 1.9 rebounds a game.Bailey, a 5-4 junior, and Korie Hargus, a 5-10 junior, each finished with 11 points. Aita Gueye, a 5-8 senior, tops USAO with 14.8 points, 2.8 assists and 2.53 steals a game.
USAO was predicted to finish 12th in the SAC.
ABOUT THE COACHES: Rob Edmisson has posted a stellar 164-26 record in his sixth season at OCU and a 466-145 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.
Laci Tompkins has a 13-29 record in her second season as USAO coach. Tompkins played basketball at USAO from 1991-95, then spent four seasons as an assistant coach under George Davidson at USAO. She spent nine seasons on the junior-college level as Redlands (Okla.) head coach.
QUOTABLE: “Just like anything in the Sooner Athletic Conference, when you go on the road you've got to be ready to play. So far, we've proven that we're pretty good on the road and being able to play. Even the John Brown game we were good at one point. We'll have one day, but if our kids play with energy and show up, we'll be fine. They're all important.” – 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. USAO will provide live stats of the game.
