Women's Basketball 1/29/2014 4:10:00 PM

OCU vs. Southwestern Assemblies of God women's basketball preview

Stars look for 10th SAC win against SAGU

Tommitrise Collins provides 2.6 points per game off the bench for the Stars.

6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University begins the second half of Sooner Athletic Conference play by playing host to first-year SAC member Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas). The Kramer School of Nursing staff and faculty will be honored at halftime.
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: OCU, ranked No. 7 in NAIA Division I women's basketball, pummeled USAO 86-55 Saturday at USAO Fieldhouse in Chickasha, Okla. The Stars improved to 12-2 on the season and 9-1 in SAC play with the win.
Junior Yvonte Neal paced the Stars with 27 points and six rebounds. The 5-foot-7 guard from Spring Valley, Calif., is OCU's leading scorer with 17.3 points per game. Neal is sixth in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage, shooting 87 percent from the charity stripe.
Forward Autumn Lau followed with 17 points and 10 rebounds against the Lady Drovers. The 5-foot-10 senior from Mount Wolf, Pa., has posted a double-double in two of OCU's last three games and has four this season. Lau averages 14.2 points and a conference-leading 8.8 rebounds per game.
Kayla MacKenzie, a senior from Peoria, Ariz., chipped in with 13 points and seven steals in the 31-point blowout. The 5-foot-6 guard leads the squad in assists (4.3) and steals (2.14) per contest. MacKenzie is averaging 13.3 points per outing so far this season.
OCU is second in NAIA Division I in total rebound margin (13.7) and fifth in total rebounds per game (47.2) while being ranked in the top-10 in seven statistical categories. To see how the Stars stack up against the rest of the NAIA, click here.
The Stars held at seventh in the newest national rankings. OCU has been rated in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 171 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 has gone 123-11 in league play over the past six-plus seasons.
The Stars defeated the Lady Lions 77-65 on Jan. 13 in the only previous meeting between the two sides. Autumn Huffman and MacKenzie provided double-doubles to help OCU earn the road win.

ABOUT THE LADY LIONS: Southwestern Assemblies of God fell 75-58 to Wayland Baptist (Texas) on Jan. 23. The Lady Lions enter Thursday's contest at 10-10 overall and 4-6 in SAC play.
Nia Winston led the Lady Lions with 15 points in 32 minutes of action against the Flying Queens. The 5-foot-6 guard leads the squad with 18.2 points per contest.
Jirah Rodriguez chipped in with eight points and three rebounds in the 75-58 loss. The 5-foot-9 forward is the team's second leading scorer at 7.7 points per game.
Laken Ward followed with a team-high 11 rebounds, six points and three steals against Wayland Baptist. The 5-foot-10 forwards lead the Lady Lions with 6.9 rebounds per game.
The Lady Lions are fifth in NAIA Division I field goal percentage defense (0.34) and sixth in total steals (263). Southwestern Assemblies of God was picked to finish ninth in the SAC according to the coaches' preseason poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell owns a 103-82 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).
Arlon Beadles has produced more than 400 career victories in 30 years coaching. Beadles led Southwestern Assemblies of God to its first appearance in the NAIA Tournament in 2010.

QUOTABLE: "We have high expectations for our program and we have high expectations for our student athletes. We're looking forward to it. It is always harder the second time around, but we can hopefully make it hard on other teams as well." – Trammell on the second half of SAC play

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.

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 call the game. To access the live audio, stats or video for the games, 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 women'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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