Men's Basketball 2/22/2013 2:06:00 PM

OCU at Rogers State men's basketball preview

Stars jockey for position in Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament

Ivan Matip averages 5.0 points and 3.2 rebounds for OCU this season.

5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23
Claremore Expo Center in Claremore, Okla.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University hits the road for a Sooner Athletic Conference contest with Rogers State in the regular-season finale.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU fell 77-72 to No. 10 Oklahoma Baptist Thursday at the Noble Complex in Shawnee, Okla. The loss moved the Stars to 13-10 overall and 6-9 in SAC play.
Guard Terry Johnson led the Stars against the Bison with 27 points, six rebounds and three assists in 40 minutes of action. The 6-foot junior from Chicago leads OCU with 15 points and 1.59 steals per contest. Johnson is 17th in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage, shooting 83 percent from the charity stripe.
Senior Troynell Adams notched 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and added four rebounds against Oklahoma Baptist. The 6-foot-4 guard from Chicago is second on the team with 14.1 points per game and averages 4.6 rebounds per outing. Adams is 16th in the NAIA with a free throw percentage of 0.83.
Center Elhadji Wade added nine points and six rebounds off the bench. The 6-foot-9 senior from Dakar, Senegal, averages 6.7 points and five rebounds per game for the Stars. Wade leads the squad with 1.05 blocks per game.
OCU is ranked 10th in the nation in free throw percentage (0.72) and 11th in turnover margin (3.8) while freshman Jamil Donovan is second in the NAIA in assist/turnover ratio (3.7).
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.
Rogers State owns an 8-3 advantage over OCU. The Hillcats topped the Stars 79-71 Jan. 17 at Abe Lemons Arena.

ABOUT THE HILLCATS: Rogers State picked up a 79-69 road win over St. Gregory's Wednesday at W.P. Wood Field House in Shawnee, Okla. The Hillcats enter the contest with an overall record of 20-9 and an 8-7 record in SAC play.
Ken Holdman led the Hillcats with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field against St. Gregory's. The 6-foot guard averages 13.4 points on 51 percent shooting on the season.
Robinson Odoch Opong notched 22 points off the bench for Rogers State. The 6-foot-3 reserve guard is shooting 52 percent from 3-point distance in seven games this season.
Justynn Hammond added eight points, four assists and three rebounds in the 79-69 victory. The 6-foot-5 guard averages 11.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Rogers State is fifth in the nation in made 3-pointers (242) and 3-point percentage (0.34). The Hillcats were picked to finish second in the SAC by league coaches.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Dionne Phelps is in the midst of 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.
Justin Barkley has a 65-30 record in his third season as Rogers State head coach. He previously served as assistant coach for two seasons at Rogers State. Barkley played on Northeastern State's 2003 NCAA Division II championship team and a state championship team at Inola (Okla.).

QUOTABLE: “I'm proud of Terry. He had to step up and be a leader. We've seen this from Terry before, though.” – Phelps on Johnson's season-best performance Thursday

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. Pairings are expected to be released Sunday. All nine teams will qualify for the tournament with the eighth- and ninth-place teams meeting in a play-in game 8 p.m. Wednesday.

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 for the game, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here.
Rogers State will provide live stats and video for the game. To watch the game or follow via live stats, click here.

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