Men's Basketball 1/4/2014 7:42:00 PM

OCU vs. Northwood men's basketball preview

Stars take on Northwood in game postponed from Dec. 7

R.J. McGhee provided OCU with 20 points in his season debut Thursday.

8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University meets Northwood (Texas) for the first time in a Sooner Athletic Conference contest.
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: The Stars decked Wayland Baptist (Texas) 83-62 on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena. OCU (5-4, 1-1 SAC) held Wayland Baptist to a 32.3 percent field-goal percentage, a season low for a Stars opponent. OCU limited a team to less than 40 percent shooting for the fourth time in 2013-14.
R.J. McGhee, a 6-foot-6 senior from Baton Rouge, La., tallied 20 points, three rebounds, two assists and three 3-pointers in his OCU debut, leading a season-high five Stars in double-digit scoring. McGhee played in two games for Eastern Illinois last season and became an all-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference performer for Dodge City (Kan.) in 2011-12. McGhee averaged 18.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.54 steals a game as a sophomore.
Terry Johnson, a 6-foot senior from Chicago, posted 14 points, five rebounds and two steals against Wayland Baptist. Johnson sank 7 of his 15 shots from the field. He supplies OCU with 16.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.33 steals per contest. Jamaal Crayton, a 6-3 senior from Augusta, Ga., came away with 12 points and a season-high six assists. Crayton records 11.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.22 steals a game.
The Stars have been picked to finish fourth in the SAC in the preseason coaches poll. OCU has won national championships in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2008.
OCU swept a two-game home-and-home series against Northwood in the Knights' inaugural season in 2012-13. The Stars completed the sweep with a 68-58 win on Dec. 20, 2012 in Cedar Hill, Texas. Johnson scored 16 points for OCU.

ABOUT THE KNIGHTS: Morris Woods' pair of free throws with two seconds remaining brought Oklahoma Baptist a 71-69 win over Northwood at Saturday in Cedar Hill, Texas. Northwood (2-6, 0-2 SAC) rallied from 14 points down to take a two-point lead with 2:18 left.
Everett Pleasant, a 6-5 sophomore, paced Northwood with 17 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Pleasant averages 19.7 points and 12.3 rebounds a game. Jerrick Massenburge, a 6-4 sophomore, added 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks Saturday. Massenburge notches 14.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest.
Northwood has been ticketed to finish 11th in the 11-team SAC in the preseason.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Dionne Phelps owns a record of 34-30 in his third season as OCU coach. He led the Stars to the SAC Tournament title and an NAIA Division I Tournament appearance in 2012-13. 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.
Ray Wilkerson has guided Northwood to a 6-28 record in the program's second season of existence. Northwood went 4-22 in its first season.

QUOTABLE: "We need it. If you think about it over the last two of years, we have had only seven or eight players play at this time of year. It feels really good to have some depth and more importantly, to give some guys some time to rest. I mean, they need it. It gives us a chance to get that rotation in and see what those guys can do." – Phelps on having five Stars reach double figures in scoring

"He's a very talented young man, there's no question. He's been practicing with us, he's been doing a good job on the floor during practice, but you know how it is, once the lights go on, you really don't know what a guy's going to give you. I'm proud of him to be able to come in and let the game come to him tonight. He should be able to help. One of the things we have to get him to do is he's got to help us defensively. He needs to help us on the boards, he needs to be more active on the glass and he can do that." – Phelps accessing McGhee's season debut

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. 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 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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