Women's Basketball 2/20/2013 12:44:00 PM

OCU at Oklahoma Baptist women's basketball preview

Stars aim to wrap up regular season with momentum

Autumn Huffman scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in OCU's last meeting with Oklahoma Baptist.

6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21
Noble Complex in Shawnee, Okla.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University hits the road for a Sooner Athletic Conference contest with Oklahoma Baptist.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU swatted St. Gregory's 102-54 Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena to win the outright SAC regular-season title. The Stars, ranked No. 2 in NAIA Division I women's basketball, moved to 22-2 overall and 14-0 in SAC play and have won 21 consecutive games.
Senior Lauren Gober led the OCU charge with 27 points, 11 rebounds and five steals against the Lady Cavaliers. The 6-foot-2 forward from Newcastle, Okla., leads the Stars with 16.8 points per game on 43 percent shooting from 3-point range. Gober ranks third in the NAIA in made 3-poiners per game (3.0), sixth in 3-point percentage (0.43) and eighth in total made 3-pointers (72).
Center Katie Hall followed with 20 points and 15 boards for her 10th double-double of the season. The 6-foot senior from Hazleton, Idaho, leads the stars with 9.6 rebounds per game and is second on the team with 13.0 points per outing. Hall is third in the NAIA with 5.0 offensive rebounds per game and 16th with 9.6 rebounds per game.
Desiree Jeffries, a senior from Oklahoma City, notched 17 points five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes of work. The 6-foot forward averages 12.3 points per game and leads the squad with 4.0 assists per contest. Jeffries is ranked 12th in NAIA assist/turnover ratio, averaging 2.0 assists for every turnover.
The Stars a first in the NAIA in scoring margin (35.1) and turnover margin (14.6) and are ranked in the top-5 in 10 statistical categories. To see how OCU stacks up against the rest of the NAIA, click here.
The Stars held at second in the most recent NAIA Division I rankings. Defending national champion OCU has been listed in all 162 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 14 times – in 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and now, 2013.
OCU owns a 44-22 record against Oklahoma Baptist. The Stars popped the Lady Bison 56-33 on Jan. 19 at Abe Lemons Arena. Hall and Autumn Huffman posted double-double performances.

ABOUT THE LADY BISON: Oklahoma Baptist earned a 64-42 victory over Mid-America Christian at the Gaulke Activity Center in Oklahoma City. The Lady Bison enter the contest with a 14-11 record overall and a 7-7 record in SAC play.
Leading scorer Zbeyda Aremi led the way with 19 points, six blocks and five rebounds. The 6-foot-4 center averages 12.2 points per game and is sixth in the NAIA with 2.2 blocks per game.
Charity Fowler notched 11 points and 10 rebounds against Mid-America Christian. The sophomore guard averages 11.7 points per game and leads Oklahoma Baptist with 6.2 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game.
Jalissa Council tallied 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor off the bench in the 64-42 victory. The 6-foot-1 junior averages 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
The Lady Bison are third in the NAIA in defensive field goal percentage (0.32), fifth in blocks per game (4.4) and ninth in total blocks (110). Oklahoma Baptist was picked to finish fourth 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 Denton Bill Ryan High School (Texas).
Casi Bays became Oklahoma Baptist women's basketball coach in August. Bays (nee' Cox) had been assistant under the previous head coach, John McCullough, as well as head girls coach at Bridge Creek and Newcastle, where she coached Gober. Bays had become a two-time all-American, piling up 1,879 points during her playing career at Oklahoma Baptist.

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.

ABOUT THE SAC TOURNAMENT: The nation's premier NAIA basketball conference stages its postseason tournament at the Noble Complex in Shawnee, Okla., on Feb. 27-March 2. NAIA Division I Tournament berths will be at stake in the Sooner Athletic Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments.

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 provides the play-by-play. To access the live audio for the game, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here.
Oklahoma Baptist will provide live stats and video for the game. To access the live stats and video, click here.

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