Women's Basketball 11/20/2014 2:45:00 PM

OCU vs. Our Lady of the Lake women’s basketball preview

Stars host first home game of season

Latricia Trammell was the 2014 Phyllis Holmes NAIA Division I coach of the year and the 2013 Sooner Athletic Conference coach of the year.

6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Top-ranked Oklahoma City University hosts Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) for the Stars' first home game of the season.
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. If the Stars score 70 points, fans will get a prize from Raising Cane's. For the OCU athletics visitors guide, click here.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU opened the season with a 71-68 defeat at 24th-ranked Langston on Saturday. The Stars (0-1) created a 42-34 rebounding advantage and sank 51.5 percent of its second-half field-goal attempts. OCU lost to Langston for the second time ever in women's basketball.
Rateska Brown and Ouleymatou Coulibaly led the Stars by scoring 16 points each. Brown, a 5-foot-6 senior, also had four rebounds and three assists. Coulibaly, a 6-2 senior, pulled down seven rebounds with one block and two steals.
Markeisha Johnson, a 5-8 junior, recorded her first double-double of her OCU career with 13 points, 12 rebounds and two assists. Johnson ranks No. 1 in NAIA Division I in offensive rebounds per game with 7.0. She also ranks second in field-goal percentage, shooting 75.0 percent.
Oklahoma City's 19.0 assists per game ranks 10th in the NAIA. To see how the Stars rate statistically among the NAIA, click here.
The Stars are ranked No. 1 in the preseason NAIA rankings. OCU has been ranked in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 179 polls since 1999-2000. OCU owns national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014.
SAC coaches predicted the Stars would win the league title. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 15 times, including the last five in a row.
OCU has only played Our Lady of the Lake one other time. The Stars won 91-73 in a first-round matchup of the NAIA Tournament on March 14, 2012 in Frankfort, Ky., eliminating Our Lady of the Lake from the tournament.

ABOUT THE SAINTS: Our Lady of the Lake (2-0) dominated Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) 112-69 on Nov. 16 in the LSU-Shreveport Classic. The Saints shot 45.8 percent from the field - including 42.3 percent from behind the 3-point line and 78.1 percent from the free-throw line. Six Saints scored in double figures.
Courtney Bayliss, a 6-foot senior, led the charge with 22 points, while making 6 of 10 3-pointers. Sonji Green, a 6-foot junior, added 15 points and six rebounds, shot 6-of-10 from the field and made all three free-throw attempts.
Our Lady of the Lady sits tied for 11th in the preseason NAIA rankings. The Saints were picked to finish second in the preseason Red River Athletic Conference poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell was the 2014 NAIA Division I Phyllis Holmes coach of the year. Trammell has a 55-9 record in her third season as OCU head coach. She guided the Stars to a 16-0 record in conference play in 2012-13. She was OCU assistant to Rob Edmisson in 2005-07, then became Western State (Colo.) head coach from 2007-12. Trammell's college head-coaching record is 120-85 in her eighth year. 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. 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.
Christopher Minner enters his sixth season with Our Lady of the Lake. In 2013-14, the Saints were the Red River Athletic Conference regular-season champions after finishing with a 27-5 overall and 16-2 conference record. The team made its third consecutive trip to nationals and made it to the Sweet 16 round for the first time ever.

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.
Fans can sign up to receive OCU Athletics SMS text message alerts, including the latest score updates and headlines from the Stars, by going here.
Fans can sign up to receive the latest OCU athletic headlines via e-mail by going here.
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 of the Stars' games. To follow the game via live audio, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Andrew Himes will call the game.
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' home games this season costs $29.95, while a 2014-15 all-sports pass costs $79.95.

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Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly: C; 6' 2"; Senior

#23 Markeisha Johnson: F; 5' 8"; Junior

#3 Rateska Brown: G; 5' 6"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly
: 6' 2"; Senior
: C

#23 Markeisha Johnson
: 5' 8"; Junior
: F

#3 Rateska Brown
: 5' 6"; Senior
: G

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly

#23 Markeisha Johnson

#3 Rateska Brown

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly

#23 Markeisha Johnson

#3 Rateska Brown