3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22
W.P. Wood Fieldhouse in Shawnee, Okla.
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University takes on Sooner Athletic Conference foe St. Gregory's in a road contest.
Saturday will be Military Appreciation Day at W.P. Wood Fieldhouse. Military will be allowed into the games free and provided with free popcorn and a drink.
ABOUT THE STARS: OCU rallied for a 93-59 victory over Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (16-0, 11-0 SAC) shot 64.1 percent from the field in the second half, exploding for 65 second-half points. OCU erased a six-point deficit.
Donica Cosby, a 5-foot-8 senior from Coldwater, Miss., notched 19 points, five assists and two steals. She hit 7 of her 11 shots from the floor and 3-for-6 from 3-point range. Cosby, a 2010 first-team all-American and SAC newcomer of the year, averages 11.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.94 steals.
Starr Fairbanks, a 6-2 senior from Cincinnati, posted 17 points and a team-high six rebounds. She shot 8-for-11 from the field. Fairbanks records 12.3 points and 4.1 rebounds along with a 63.9 percent field-goal percentage. Lauren Gober, a 6-2 sophomore from Newcastle, Okla., picked up 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and five steals. Gober, the 2010 SAC freshman of the year, tops OCU with 13.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.81 blocked shots a game.
OCU leads NAIA Division I with a 49.4 percent team shooting percentage and an average victory margin of 33.8 points a game. The Stars also rank second with 20.1 assists per game and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.16 assists for every turnover. 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 owns a 28-1 record against St. Gregory's. The Stars won 73-47 over St. Gregory's on Jan. 21, 2010 in Shawnee, Okla. Fairbanks had 11 points and four steals.
ABOUT THE LADY CAVALIERS: St. Gregory's fell 52-47 to Mid-America Christian on Thursday in Oklahoma City. St. Gregory's(5-12, 1-9 SAC) failed to score for nearly the first 10 minutes of the game, but St. Gregory's recovered to cut its deficit to 50-44 with 2:37 remaining in the game.
Leticia Silva, a 5-10 sophomore, led St. Gregory's with 19 points. Silva averages 15.9 points and 6.4 rebounds a game. Jalisa Howard, a 5-7 junior, added 12 points and 11 rebounds. Howard contributes 11.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.73 steals a game.
St. Gregory's was pegged to finish 11th in the 12-team SAC in the preseason.
ABOUT THE COACHES: Rob Edmisson has posted a stellar 166-26 record in his sixth season at OCU and a 468-145 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 four 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.
St. Gregory's has a 16-60 record under Kelly Archer, who is in his third season as St. Gregory's coach. Archer led Hillsdale Baptist to five national titles in the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association prior to his arrival at St. Gregory's.
QUOTABLE: “Obviously being down two at half, she just came out the second half and just decided 'I'm going to take it over' and when she does that, everybody just jumps on. Our kids don't care who scores and who does that, as long as someone does it. They jump in, and she started stealing the ball, getting easy layups, knocking down the 3 and she just created a lot of energy for us.” – Edmisson on Cosby
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.
