Men's Basketball 12/4/2012 3:11:00 PM

OCU vs. Northwood men's basketball preview

Kaleb Smith notched three blocks and two steals against Southwestern Adventist.

7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5
Abe Lemons Arena

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University continues its non-conference schedule with a home contest against Northwood (Texas).
Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students. OCU students, faculty and staff get in free to all Stars regular-season home events with their university ID.

ABOUT THE STARS: The 5-1 Stars downed Southwestern Adventist (Texas) 85-63 Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena. OCU outscored the Knights 34-12 in the paint and scored 27 points off turnovers to pick up its fifth win of the young the season.
Point guard Charlton Jones led the Stars with a game-high 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds. The senior from Katy, Texas, is first on the team and second in NAIA Division I with 7.8 assists per game. Jones averages 11.8 points per outing on 46 percent shooting from the field.
Senior Troynell Adams pitched in with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor. The guard from Chicago averages 14.5 points per game to lead the Stars in scoring. Adams is third on the squad in field goal percentage, shooting 50 percent on the season.
Shawn Grant, of San Jose, Calif., added 12 points in 21 minutes off the bench. The senior forward hit 4-of-8 from 3-point distance against Southwestern Adventist. Grant is shooting 44 percent from behind the 3-point line to lead the Stars.
OCU is ranked fifth in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage (0.75), eighth in total rebound margin (9.0) and 11th in assists per game (16.3). To see how the Stars stack up against the rest of the NAIA, click here.
OCU received votes in the NAIA Division I men's basketball coaches' preseason top-25 poll. OCU was picked to finish fifth in the Sooner Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll.

ABOUT THE KNIGHTS: Northwood enters the contest with a record of 0-12. The Knights fell 77-64 to USAO Saturday.
Jabbar Reid led the Knights with 14 points against the Drovers. Reid averaged 17.7 points per game to lead Northwood.
Jerrick Massenburge chipped in with 14 points in the loss to USAO. Massenburge averages 2.0 rebounds and 6.4 points per game.
Jonathan Sulak notched a season-high 10 points against USAO. Sulak shot 40 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Dionne Phelps enters his second season as OCU coach. Phelps took over the Stars after serving as assistant coach for Oklahoma, which featured future No. 1 NBA Draft pick Blake Griffin during his tenure. Phelps has been a part of four conference title teams as well as three NCAA Tournament teams during his 23-year coaching career. Phelps played for Texas Lutheran, eventually joining the Bulldog Athletic Hall of Fame.
Northwood is coached by Ray Wilkerson, assisted by Nuno Tavares and Mac Tuck.

QUOTABLE: “I'm proud of our guys. At the end of the day sometimes you have to go out and figure out a way to win. I thought that in the second half they figured out that they were going to compete and they went out and found a way to win.” – Dionne Phelps of his team's performance against Southwestern Adventist

FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest on OCU athletics through several ways.
Become a fan of the Oklahoma City University Stars on Facebook by going to www.facebook.com/ocustars.
Become a follower of the OCU Stars on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ocustars.
Check out video of the Stars in action at www.youtube.com/ocustars.
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.
Know when the game is happening by calling the OCU athletics hotline at (405) 208-5400.

ON THE AIR: OCU athletics has partnered with Stretch Internet to provide live and on-demand audio, stats and video of the Stars' games. Andrew Himes will be the voice of the Stars in 2012-13 after previously providing commentary on the OCU broadcasts. To access the live audio, stats or video for the game, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here.
The live audio and stats will be provided free of charge, while the cost to see the video will be $7.95 per game. A men's basketball season pass that allows you to see all the Stars' 2012-13 home games costs $29.95, while an 2012-13 all-sports pass costs $79.95.

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