Women's Basketball 2/7/2014 2:18:00 PM

OCU at John Brown women's basketball preview

16th-ranked John Brown hosts No.5 OCU

Yvonte Neal leads the Stars with 16.5 points per game.

3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8
Bill George Arena in Siloam Springs, Ark.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University continues Sooner Athletic Conference play on the road against John Brown (Ark.) in battle of top-25 teams.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU routed Northwood (Texas) 90-66 on Saturday in Cedar Hill, Texas. The Stars (14-2, 11-1 SAC) led from start to finish, building a 27-point lead early in the second half.
Kayla MacKenzie, a 5-foot-6 senior from Peoria, Ariz., topped OCU with 17 points. She shot 6-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 on 3-point shots. MacKenzie records 13.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.25 steals per game.
Yvonte Neal, a 5-7 junior from Spring Valley, Calif., supplied the Stars with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. Neal rates seventh nationally with an 85.7 percent free-throw shooting percentage. Neal averages 16.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.75 steals per contest.
Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-2 junior from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, and Autumn Huffman, a 5-9 senior from Midwest City, Okla., had 13 points each. Huffman added eight rebounds and three steals.
OCU ranks second in rebounding margin (plus-14.0) in the NAIA. To see where OCU rates statistically among NAIA Division I, 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 127-11 in league play over the past six-plus seasons.
OCU owns a 38-4 record in the all-times series against John Brown. In the last meeting between the two, the Stars outlasted the Golden Eagles 64-58 on Jan. 9 at Abe Lemons Arena.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLES: John Brown, ranked No. 16 in NAIA Division I, topped Southwestern Christian 77-61 Thursday at Pickens-Springer Gymnasium in Oklahoma City. John Brown enters the contest at 17-4 overall and 9-3 in SAC play.
Sierra Shipley provided 21 points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes of action Thursday. The 5-foot-9 guard leads the Golden Eagles in points (16.1), rebounds (6.1) and steals (1.67) per contest.
Kortni Barenberg followed with 17 points, on 5-of-10 shooting from the field, and nine rebounds for John Brown. The 6-foot forward is the Golden Eagles' second leading scorer at 11.1 points per outing.
Eliana Fernandez notched a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds against Southwestern Christian. The 5-foot-7 guard averages 10.6 points and a team-leading 3.5 assists per game.
The Golden Eagles are first in NAIA Division I in made 3-point field goals per game (9.8) and second in total made 3-pointers (205). John Brown has been slated to finish third in the conference according to the SAC coaches' preseason poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell owns a 107-82 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).
Jeff Soderquist is John Brown's winningest women's basketball coach with a 238-272 record entering his 17th season. He has taken John Brown to three NAIA Tournament appearances.

QUOTABLE: "We need to change our decision-making skills with the basketball. We are giving up scoring opportunities because we are turning the basketball over too many times." – Trammell

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. Andrew Himes will call the game. To listen to the action, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here.
John Brown will provide live stats and live video for the contest.

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