Women's Basketball 3/24/2014 12:17:00 PM

OCU vs. John Brown women's basketball preview

Stars meet John Brown in second all-SAC semifinal ever

Kayla MacKenzie's career numbers are 1,018 points, 275 rebounds, 228 assists, 176 steals and 137 3-pointers.

NAIA Division I Tournament semifinals
5 p.m. CDT Monday, March 24
Frankfort Convention Center in Frankfort, Ky.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University will square off with John Brown (Ark.) with a berth in the national championship game at stake. It will be the second instance that two Sooner Athletic Conference teams have met in the NAIA Division I Tournament semifinals.
OCU owns national championships won in 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2012. OCU has advanced to the Fab Four for the 12th time and fourth time in six years.
Session tickets are $10 each for general admission, $5 for senior citizens and free to youth 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased by going here.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU edged fourth-ranked Campbellsville (Ky.) 79-76 on Saturday in the tournament quarterfinals. Kayla MacKenzie's free throws in the final 25 seconds kept the Stars in front. OCU (25-4) reached 25 victories for the 16th consecutive year and improved to 6-3 against ranked opponents this season.
Cara Pugh, a 6-foot-2 senior from Oklahoma City, stood front and center for OCU with a career-high 27 points while snagging seven rebounds and four 3-pointers. She scored 21 points by halftime. Pugh contributes 10.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.03 steals a game this season, while in the tournament, Pugh is averaging 14.3 points and 3.0 rebounds.
Yvonte Neal, a 5-7 junior from Spring Valley, Calif., supplied OCU with 19 points, four assists and five treys. Neal, the co-Sooner Athletic Conference player of the year, produces 16.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.55 steals per contest. In the tournament, she is averaging 16.3 points and 3.7 rebounds a game. MacKenzie, a 5-6 senior from Peoria, Ariz., posted 13 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals. MacKenzie scored eight of her points in the final 8:58. She has 1,018 points in her OCU career. MacKenzie accumulates 12.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.10 steals a game, 11.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.67 thefts per game in the tournament.
OCU ranks third in rebounding margin (plus-11.48) and seventh in scoring margin (17.6 per game) in the NAIA. To see where OCU rates statistically among NAIA Division I, click here.
The Stars remained at No. 5 in the final national rankings before the national tournament. OCU has been ranked in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 177 polls since 1999-2000.
OCU has made its 20th national-tournament appearance and 17th in a row. OCU's record in national-tournament play stands at 59-13. OCU stands in second place all-time in tournament wins.
OCU owns a 39-5 record vs. John Brown. John Brown snapped a 31-game losing streak to OCU by winning 66-62 in the SAC Tournament semifinals March 7 in Shawnee, Okla. Neal scored a career-high 29 points, while John Brown's Lauren Rogers had 21. Before that game, the Stars had not lost to John Brown since the Golden Eagles won 59-52 on Feb. 17, 2001.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLES: John Brown nipped Loyola (La.) 65-63 on Saturday in the Elite Eight. John Brown (28-7) trailed by 18 points with 7:51 left. Brooke Barker's 3 with 11 seconds remaining provided her team the game winner.
Sierra Shipley, a 5-9 senior, recorded 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists and four 3s. Shipley picks up 16.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.63 steals a game while nailing 43.5 percent from 3-point land. Kortni Barenburg, a 6-foot senior, had 12 points. Barenburg averages 11.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per outing.
John Brown had the 19th spot in the last NAIA rankings and advanced to the tournament via the eighth at-large berth. The Golden Eagles lead the NAIA with 331 3-pointers hit and 9.46 3-pointers made per game.

ABOUT THE SOONER ATHLETIC CONFERENCE: The first time Sooner Athletic Conference squads met in the NAIA Tournament semifinals came on March 19, 2012 when Oklahoma City defeated Lubbock Christian (Texas) 85-56 in Frankfort, Ky. OCU won its sixth national title that year.
SAC schools have 13 national championships and eight runner-up finishes. Southern Nazarene has seven national titles, while Oklahoma City owns six national crowns. Three times SAC schools met for the national championship – Oklahoma City and Southern Nazarene met each other from 2002-04 with Oklahoma City winning 2002 and Southern Nazarene in 2003 and 2004.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell owns a 118-84 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 255-278 record in his 17th season. He has taken John Brown to its first semifinals appearance in four NAIA Tournament appearances.

QUOTABLE: "This was such a great game. It was back-and-forth with a very good team. I'm so proud of our young ladies and their fight. They handled the adversity and we talked about that going into this game. It's an amazing experience to see them be so successful, especially with seven new players and only three returners. This says a lot about their toughness." – Trammell on Saturday's game

STAYING IN OKC? Come to the student lounge of the Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center on the OCU campus to watch the game.

FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest on OCU athletics through several ways.
Sign up to get text alerts from OCU Athletics by visiting the SMS Text Alerts Signup.
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: Fans can follow each NAIA Tournament game via live stats and video. The video is available for $9.95 per day and $24.95 for an all-tournament pass. Watch the games here or keep up with the game via live stats by clicking here.

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