Women's Basketball 1/17/2014 4:30:00 PM

OCU vs. Mid-America Christian women's basketball preview

Stars aim to bounce back from first league loss of season

Markeisha Johnson is averaging 4.3 rebounds per game for the Stars.

3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University plays host to Sooner Athletic Conference opponent Mid-America Christian. OCU will recognize its newest athletic hall of famers during a luncheon 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
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. For the OCU athletics visitors guide, click here.

ABOUT THE STARS: Sixth-ranked Oklahoma Baptist handed No. 3 OCU its first SAC loss Thursday at the Noble Complex in Shawnee, Okla. The loss moves the Stars to 9-2 overall and 6-1 in SAC play.
Forward Autumn Lau notched a career-high 28 points and added five rebounds in the loss. The 5-foot-10 senior from Mount Wolf, Pa., has scored 16 points or more in OCU's last three contests and is averaging 15.4 points per game. Lau leads the team and the SAC with 9.3 rebounds per game.
Junior Yvonte Neal followed with 17 points and seven rebounds against the Lady Bison. The 5-foot-7 guard from Spring Valley, Calif., leads OCU in scoring and steals averaging 16.1 points and 2.18 steals per contest. Neal has scored 15 points or more eight times this season.
Kayla MacKenzie, a senior from Peoria, Ariz., chipped in with nine points, three assists and three steals against Oklahoma Baptist. The 5-foot-6 guard leads the Stars with 4.5 assists per game this season. MacKenzie is averaging 11.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per outing.
The Stars are ranked third in NAIA Division I in total rebounding margin (13.8) and fourth in offensive rebounds per game (18.8). To see how OCU stacks up against the rest of the NAIA, click here.
The Stars remained at No. 3 in the latest national rankings. OCU has been rated in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 169 polls since 1999-2000. OCU owns national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2012. SAC coaches predicted the Stars would win the league title. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 14 times, including last season when the Stars became the 10th SAC team to go unbeaten in league play.
OCU is 13-0 all-time against Mid-America Christian. In the last meeting between the two sides, OCU topped the Lady Evangels 80-47 in the 2013 SAC Tournament.

ABOUT THE LADY EVANGELS: Mid-America Christian dropped its third straight game Thursday with an 84-76 loss to Southwestern Christian at home. The Lady Evangels enter Saturday's contest at 10-6 overall and 4-3 in SAC play.
Lauren McKinney led the charge with a 24 points and a game high 17 rebounds against Southwestern Christian. McKinney is averaging 11.1 points and a team-high 8.9 rebounds per game.
Cheyenne Been followed with 15 points and four assists in 25 minutes off the bench. Been is one of four Lady Evangels to average double digits in scoring at 10.6 points per game this season.
Ashlee Ferguson tallied 13 points and three rebounds in the loss. Ferguson leads the Lady Evangels in points per game (13.7) and free-throw percentage (0.89).
Mid-America Christian is ranked eighth in NAIA Division I in total 3-point field goals made (134) and ninth in 3-point field goals per game (8.4). The Lady Evangels has been slated to finish seventh in the SAC by league coaches.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell owns a 102-81 record in six seasons as a college head coach. She reeled off a 28-4 record and became conference coach of the year in her first season as OCU head coach in 2012-13. Trammell returned to OCU last season after serving as Western State (Colo.) head coach from 2007-12. As a head coach, Trammell has coached three all-Americans and 17 all-conference selections, including the co-SAC player of the year, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference player of the year and RMAC West Division freshman of the year. Trammell was assistant coach at OCU from 2005-07. As an assistant at OCU from 2005-07, 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).
Marcus Moeller is in the midst of his first season at the helm of the Lady Evangels. Moeller served as assistant coach at Mid-America Christian each of the past two seasons before taking over as head coach. Prior to joining the coaching staff at Mid-America Christian, he spent three seasons as an assistant at Missouri Southern State.

FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest on OCU athletics through several ways.
Help OCU win an NAIA contest and gain more followers on social media in 2013-14. 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.

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 is the voice of the Stars. To access the live audio 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' 2013-14 home games costs $29.95, while a 2013-14 all-sports pass costs $79.95.

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