Women's Basketball 2/10/2014 4:04:00 PM

OCU vs. Southwestern Christian women's basketball preview

Stars look to sweep season series with Southwestern Christian

Ouleymatou Coulibaly provides 12.6 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Stars.

6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University continues Sooner Athletic Conference play with a home contest against first-year conference member Southwestern Christian.
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, ranked No. 5 in NAIA Division I women's basketball, picked up a 65-51 victory over John Brown (Ark.) Saturday at Bill George Arena in Siloam Springs, Ark. The victory improved OCU's record to 15-2 overall and 12-1 in SAC play.
Junior Yvonte Neal led the OCU charge with 18 points in 25 minutes of action. The 5-foot-7 guard from Springs Valley, Calif., is averaging a team-leading 16.6 points to go along with 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Neal is 12th in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage, shooting 83 percent from the charity stripe.
Fellow junior Ouleymatou Coulibaly added 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field against John Brown. The 6-foot-2 center from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, is averaging 12.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest for the Stars. Coulibaly is 13th in NAIA Division I in field goal percentage, shooting 54 percent from the floor.
Forward Autumn Lau provided OCU with 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench against the Golden Eagles. The 5-foot-10 senior from Mount Wolf, Pa., is first on the team with six double-doubles. Lau is averaging 14.1 points and a SAC-leading 8.8 rebounds per game this season.
OCU is ranked second in NAIA Division I in total rebound margin (12.9) and appears 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 moved up to fifth in the latest NAIA Division I rankings. OCU has been ranked in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 172 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 128-11 in league play over the past six-plus seasons.
OCU holds a 1-0 advantage in the all-series with Southwestern Christian. The Stars pounded the Lady Eagles 98-58 in the first meeting between the two sides on Dec. 17, 2013.

ABOUT THE LADY EAGLES: Southwestern Christian topped St. Gregory's 80-66 Saturday at W.P. Wood Fieldhouse in Shawnee, Okla. The Lady Eagles enter Tuesday's contest at 8-14 overall and 6-8 in SAC play.
Guard Adrianna White led the Lady Eagles with 25 points, on 10-of-12 shooting from the floor, six rebounds and four assists against St. Gregory's. White is averaging a team-high 15.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per outing.
Fellow guard Maranda Janz added 14 points on 50 percent shooting from the field in the double-digit win. Janz averages 10.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Lady Eagles.
Forward Vanessa Bledsoe chipped in with 12 points and eight rebounds against the Lady Cavaliers. Bledsoe contributes 12.7 points and a team-leading 7.1 rebounds per contest.
Southwestern Christian has been projected to finish 11th in the 11-team SAC according to the coaches.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell owns a 108-82 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).
Becky Mitchell is in her 13th season as Southwestern Christian coach. Mitchell has led her team to a 51-67 record in her fourth season since Southwestern Christian became an NAIA member in 2010-11.

QUOTABLE: "Out of all of our wins this season, this is the one I am most proud of. Our kids were really disciplined and did what it took to win. There was a stretch in the second half where we went on a 19-0 run, and we held them scoreless in 14 out of 15 possessions. That says a lot about our kids and the determination they had in that game." – Trammell on OCU's victory over John Brown

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.

ON THE AIR: OCU athletics has partnered with Stretch Internet to provide live and on-demand audio, stats and video of the Stars' games. Chris Cox 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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