Men's Basketball 2/15/2013 12:13:00 PM

OCU vs. St. Gregory's men's basketball preview

Elhadji Wade averages 6.1 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Stars.

5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16
Abe Lemons Arena

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City looks to rebound from back-to-back losses in a Sooner Athletic Conference contest with St. Gregory's.
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. The OCU pep dancers will celebrate their 25th year entertaining OCU fans with a special performance.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU suffered a 66-62 setback against No. 4 John Brown (Ark.) Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena. The loss dropped the Stars to 12-9 overall and 5-8 in SAC competition.
Guard Terry Johnson led the Stars charge with 15 points, three assists and three steals. The 6-foot junior from Chicago leads the Stars with 14.8 points and 1.57 steals per game. Johnson is 14th in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage, shooting 83 percent from the charity stripe.
Center Elhadji Wade notched 13 points and six rebounds off the bench against John Brown. The 6-foot-9 senior from Dakar, Senegal, leads the Stars with 1.05 blocked shots per game. Wade averages 6.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per contest.
Charlton Jones, a senior from Katy, Texas, added nine points and two assists in 36 minutes of action. The 6-foot-1 point guard averages 13.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. Jones is eighth in NAIA Division I in assist/turnover ratio (2.7) and ninth in assists per game (5.9).
The Stars are ranked ninth in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage (0.73) and 13th in turnover margin (3.5) while freshman Jamil Donovan is second in the nation in assists turnover ratio (3.7). To see how OCU stacks up with the rest of the NAIA, 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 owns a 31-2 against St. Gregory's. The Stars nipped the Cavaliers 67-66 on Jan. 24 at W.P. Wood Field House in Shawnee, Okla. Johnson only posted five points in the game but hit the game winner to snap a five-game losing streak for OCU.

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: St. Gregory's narrowly fell 50-47 to USAO Thursday at W.P. Wood Field House. The Cavaliers enter the matchup with a 6-17 overall record and a0-13 record in SAC competition.
Guard Fayzon Richey led the way with 14 points and four steals against USAO. The 6-foot-3 Richey averages 20.1 points per game to lead St. Gregory's and ranks 12th in NAIA Division I in points per game.
Center Brock Vorwald notched eight points and 11 rebounds in the 50-47 loss. The 6-foot-7 Vorwald averages 7.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per outing.
Forward Josiah Campbell added nine points and nine rebounds in 32 minutes of action. The 6-foot-5 Campbell averages 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
St. Gregory's is 21st in NAIA Division I with 26.6 defensive rebounds per game while Richey is 20th in the nation with 5.4 defensive boards per game. The Cavaliers were picked to finish ninth in the SAC by league coaches.

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.
John Martin is in his fifth season as head coach of the Cavaliers with a 27-105 overall record since taking the helm. Martin played college basketball at St. Gregory's, when it was a junior college, and OCU.

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. Andrew Himes provides the play-by-play. 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. A men's basketball season pass that allows you to see all the Stars' 2012-13 home games costs $29.95, while a 2012-13 all-sports pass costs $79.95.

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