Women's Basketball 2/17/2014 2:51:00 PM

OCU vs. St. Gregory's women's basketball preview

Stars will think pink this week

Markeisha Johnson ranks 22nd in NAIA Division I with a 2.00-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University will don pink uniforms against Sooner Athletic Conference rival St. Gregory's as part of the Stars' Play4Kay games this week. The annual Play 4Kay women's college basketball event helps raise money and awareness in the fight against women's cancers.
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: Wayland Baptist defeated OCU 88-77 on Saturday in Plainview, Texas. The Stars (16-3, 13-2 SAC) allowed the most points OCU has allowed this season.
Yvonte Neal, a 5-foot-7 junior from Spring Valley, Calif., accumulated 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Neal picks up 16.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.84 steals per game.
Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-2 junior from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, had 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field. Coulibaly contributes 13.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.32 steals per contest. Autumn Lau, a 5-10 senior from Mount Wolf, Pa., chipped in 13 points and six rebounds. She leads the conference in rebounding. Lau averages 13.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.17 blocked shots a game.
OCU ranks second in rebounding margin (plus-12.1) in the NAIA. To see where OCU rates statistically among NAIA Division I, click here.
The Stars slid to sixth in the last national ratings. OCU has been ranked in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 173 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 129-12 in league play over the past six-plus seasons. The Stars have been dominant at home with a 162-8 record at Abe Lemons Arena since 2002-03.
OCU improved to 36-1 against St. Gregory's with a 77-56 victory on Jan. 11 in Shawnee, Okla. Coulibaly and Lau had 16 points each for the Stars.

ABOUT THE LADY CAVALIERS: Texas Wesleyan sent St. Gregory's to its ninth consecutive loss 66-52 on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. St. Gregory's (2-19, 1-14 SAC) hit one basket in the final 4:57 of the game.
Taylor Koelsch, a 6-foot junior, supplied St. Gregory's 12 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. She registered her third double-double of the season. Koelsch posts 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds a game. Tori Huff, a 5-9 senior, and Caitlin White, a 5-10 freshman, had 10 points and six rebounds each. Huff averages 11.4 points and 4.3 rebounds.
St. Gregory's had been predicted to finish sixth in the SAC according to the preseason league coaches' poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell owns a 109-83 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).
Josiah White enters his first season as head coach of the Lady Cavaliers. Prior to taking over at St. Gregory's, White served as an assistant coach at Northern-Enid from 2010-13 and as a student and graduate assistant at Oklahoma Baptist. He was the head junior varsity coach for four years at OBU.

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. Chris Cox will handle the play-by-play duties. 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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