Women's Basketball 1/30/2013 3:39:00 PM

OCU vs. Wayland Baptist women's basketball preview

Stars put NAIA's longest win streak at 15 at stake

Ravven Brown is second on the team in assists (3.8) and steals (2.11) per game.

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

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University begins the second half of its Sooner Athletic Conference schedule with a home contest against Wayland Baptist (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: OCU, ranked No. 3 in NAIA Division I women's basketball, increased its NAIA-best 15-game winning streak with a 94-43 victory over St. Gregory's at W.P. Wood Field House in Shawnee, Okla. The Stars improved to 16-2 overall and 8-0 in SAC play.
Center Katie Hall notched 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds to pace the Stars' attack. Hall, a 6-foot senior from Hazleton, Idaho, posted her sixth double-double and her ninth double-digit rebound game on the season. Hall is first on the team in rebounds per game (9.3) and is fifth in NAIA Division I in offensive rebounds per game (4.7).
Senior Desiree Jeffries stuffed the stat sheet with 19 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals against St. Gregory's. The 6-foot forward from Oklahoma City topped the double-digit point mark for the seventh consecutive game. Jeffries leads the Stars in assists per game (3.7) and is 13th in NAIA Division I in assist/turnover ratio (2.0).
Five-foot-6 Ravven Brown, of Duluth, Ga., tallied 14 points with five steals and four assists in her fourth start of the season. The senior guard is second on the team in assists (3.8) and steals (2.11) per game on the season. Brown averages 7.5 points per game and has gone over the double-digit point mark six times this season.
OCU is ranked No. 1 in NAIA Division I in scoring margin (34.3) and turnover margin (13.0) while being ranked in the top-10 in 13 statistical categories. To see how the Stars stack up against the rest of the NAIA, click here.
The Stars moved up to third in the latest NAIA Division I rankings. Defending national champion OCU has been listed in all 160 polls since 1999-2000. The Stars own national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2012. SAC coaches predicted OCU would finish third place in the Sooner Athletic Conference. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 13 times – in 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
The Stars own a 32-18 all-time record against the Flying Queens. OCU topped Wayland Baptist 84-64 in their last meeting on Jan. 12.

ABOUT THE FLYING QUEENS: The Flying Queens fell 74-67 at home to John Brown (Ark.) in their last time out. Wayland Baptist enters the contest at 12-10 overall and 4-4 in SAC play.
Leading-scorer Angleigh Davis scored a game-high 23 points on 50 percent shooting against the Lady Eagles. The 5-foot-9 guard averages 15.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest.
Christie Mooney posted 16 points in 33 minutes of action against John Brown. The 5-foot-9 guard leads the Flying Queens in steals (1.68) and bocks (0.50) per game.
Rochelle Norris added 11 points and snagged eight rebounds off the bench in the 74-67 loss. The 5-foot-9 forward averages 7.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per outing.
Wayland Baptist is eighth in NAIA Division I in 3-point field goal percentage (0.35) and 19th in free throw percentage (0.70). The Flying Queens were picked to finish seventh in the SAC by league coaches.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell is in the midst of her first season as head coach of the Stars. Trammell returns to OCU after serving as Western State (Colo.) head coach the past five seasons. At Western State, Trammell had 13 all-RMAC selections, including the RMAC West Division freshman of the year and RMAC player of the year. Trammell was assistant coach at OCU from 2005-07. As an assistant at OCU, Trammell mentored the Stars' first WNBA draftee, Mariam Sy of the Washington Mystics, 10 all-conference choices, the SAC player of the year, SAC newcomer of the year and four all-Americans. Trammell also spent time as head coach at Midwest City High School and Bill Ryan High School (Texas).
Tory Bryant is in his sixth season at the helm of the Flying Queens program, posting a 96-82 record in his tenure. He led Wayland Baptist to the NAIA national tournament in 2009. Bryant led Lubbock Trinity Christian High School (Texas) to a 96-19 record and two state championships.

QUOTABLE: “Lauren Gober, a nursing major, just gets it done. She is a two-time all-American. She was a national champion last year. My small experience being with Lauren has been amazing. What a good girl. What a good student-athlete. It's nice to know that when a player shoots the basketball, in my mind, in my heart, I just know it's going in. I have that much confidence in this young lady. We could not do it without her.” – Trammell

VOTE FOR THE NAIA GAME OF THE WEEK: Vote for OCU's matchup with top-ranked Lubbock Christian (Texas) on Feb. 2 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.
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. 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 women'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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