Men's Basketball 1/30/2013 2:14:00 PM

OCU vs. Wayland Baptist men's basketball preview

Stars host Wayland Baptist in second of the two teams' 2012-13 home-and-home series

Ivan Matip chips in 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds a game for the Stars.

8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31
Abe Lemons Arena

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University aims to avenge a loss from earlier this season to Sooner Athletic Conference foe Wayland Baptist (Texas).
Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students, while OCU students, faculty and staff are allowed into all regular-season OCU athletics events for free with their ID.

ABOUT THE STARS: Terry Johnson's jumper brought the Stars a 67-66 victory over St. Gregory's on Thursday in Shawnee, Okla. OCU (9-7, 2-6 SAC) erased a 12-point deficit using 64.3 percent shooting from the field in the second half.
Troynell Adams, a 6-foot-4 senior from Chicago, poured in 24 points, shooting 8-for-13 from the field and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line. Adams supplies OCU with 14.7 points and 4.8 rebounds a game.
Charlton Jones, a 6-1 senior from Katy, Texas, contributed 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Jones amasses 13.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.38 steals a game while leading the league in assists. Terrence Walker, a 6-8 junior from Jonesboro, Ark., posted 13 points while nailing all six of his shots from the floor. Walker averages 8.1 points and 3.7 rebounds a game.
OCU ranks third in NAIA Division I with a 75.0 percent team free-throw percentage, while Jamil Donovan sits atop the national rankings with a 7.00-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. To see how the Stars rank among national statistics, click here.
The Stars were projected to finish fifth place in the Sooner Athletic Conference in the preseason. OCU owns six national championships won in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2008.
OCU leads Wayland Baptist 38-10 in the all-time series. Wayland Baptist slipped past OCU 70-68 on Jan. 24 in Plainview, Texas, in the first meeting this season. Eric Milam and Travis Payton hit free throws in the final 28 seconds to provide the Pioneers the winning points.

ABOUT THE PIONEERS: Wayland Baptist decked fourth-ranked John Brown (Ark.) 84-70 on Saturday in Plainview, Texas. Wayland Baptist (13-8, 4-4 SAC) built an early 19-2 advantage en route to dealing John Brown its first loss in conference play.
Reggie Fondren, a 6-3 senior, served as Wayland Baptist's ringleader with game highs of 30 points, nine rebounds and five steals. Fondren parlayed his season-best scoring performance into winning SAC player of the week for Jan. 21-27. Fondren produces 11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.05 steals a game. Milam, a 6-8 senior, had 17 points while hitting 7 of his 13 shots from the field. Milam averages 11.0 points and 3.6 rebounds a game.
Wayland Baptist had been expected to finish seventh place in the SAC in the preseason.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Dionne Phelps is in the midst in 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.
Matt Garnett has a 24-27 record since taking over as Wayland Baptist coach last season. Garnett led McMurry (Texas) to a 21-7 finish and the American Southwest Conference Tournament title in 2010-11. Garnett became an all-American playing for Wayland Baptist.

QUOTABLE: “It's real big to knock off the top dogs. We're confident going into every game. Every game is a winnable game, it's a process of preparing.” – Fondren

VOTE FOR THE NAIA GAME OF THE WEEK: Vote for Saturday's OCU game as the women's basketball game of the week in the NAIA by going to facebook.com/PlayNAIA. Votes are counted Thursday morning, so act now.

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. Get conference scores and highlights by calling the SAC Hotline at (405) 878-2110.

ON THE AIR: OCU athletics has partnered with Stretch Internet to provide live and on-demand audio, stats and video of the Stars' games. To access the live audio, stats or video for the game, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here.
Andrew Himes serves as OCU's play-by-play man. 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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