Women's Basketball 1/14/2015 3:36:00 PM

OCU at Southwestern Christian women's basketball preview

Stars have won four consecutive league contests

Cetoria Petties provided OCU with four rebounds, five assists and two steals Saturday.

6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15
Pickens-Springer Gymnasium in Bethany, Okla.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University aims for its 10th consecutive victory against Sooner Athletic Conference foe Southwestern Christian.

ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City topped Mid-America Christian 80-66 on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (9-1, 4-0 SAC) unleashed a 20-2 run at the start of the second half.
Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-foot-2 senior from Bamako Mali, West Africa, propelled OCU with 18 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. Her efforts earned her SAC player of the week as she averaged 21.0 points and 11.5 rebounds on 63 percent shooting from the field from Jan. 5-11. Coulibaly generates 17.9 points and 7.9 rebounds a game and ranks ninth nationally with a 55.6 percent field-goal percentage.
Yvonte Neal, a 5-7 senior from Spring Valley, Calif., picked up 16 points, three rebounds, two steals and two 3-pointers. Neal puts up 18.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.60 steals a contest. Catherine Kruschke, a 6-foot junior from Dublin, Calif., had 15 points and eight rebounds off the pine. OCU piled up a 41-21 advantage in points off the bench. Kruschke averages 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds a game.
Rateska Brown supplies OCU with 21.3 points a game, which ranks fourth nationally. The Stars' 47.4 percent team field-goal percentage ranks third nationally. To see how OCU ranks statistically in NAIA Division I, click here.
Oklahoma City remained at No. 2 in the newest 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 182 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 owns a 3-0 record against Southwestern Christian. The Stars eliminated Southwestern Christian from the SAC Tournament 73-65 on March 6, 2014 in Shawnee, Okla. Neal had 19 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

ABOUT THE LADY EAGLES: Southwestern Christian picked up its first SAC win of the season 71-66 over USAO on Saturday in Chickasha, Okla. The Lady Eagles (5-11, 1-3 SAC).
Maranda Janz posted a career-high 24 points while nailing 7 of 9 from beyond the arc. The 5-foot-7 sophomore has scored in double figures in each of her last four games. Janz leads Southwestern Christian with 24 made 3-pointers and is third on the team with 7.9 points per game. Grace Hadley had 16 points and five rebounds. The 5-foot-9 freshman is averaging 17 points while shooting 53 percent from 3-point distance in her last three outings. Hadley averages 7.0 points and 2.8 rebounds this season.
Adrianna White ranks 20th in the NAIA with 16.9 points per game. Southwestern Christian had been picked to finish eighth in the SAC in the preseason.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell was the 2014 NAIA Division I Phyllis Holmes coach of the year. Trammell has a 64-9 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 129-85 in her eighth year. Trammell has coached six all-Americans and 23 all-conference selections, including two SAC players of the year, an SAC newcomer 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.
Darrick Matthews enters his first season at the helm of the Lady Eagles. Matthews spent the previous two seasons as an assistant under Southwestern Christian men's basketball coach Quinn Wooldridge. Matthews played collegiately at Oklahoma Christian, University of the Southwest (N.M.) and McMurry (Texas).

QUOTABLE: "We had to make some adjustments at halftime. I didn't think we were defending well enough, but we had some help from our bench. I was really proud of their effort." – Trammell on Saturday's second-half effort

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 provide the play-by-play.
Watch the game here or follow via live stats.

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Players Mentioned

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

#22 Yvonte Neal: G; 5' 7"; Senior

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

#24 Catherine Kruschke: F; 6' 0"; Junior

Players Mentioned

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

#22 Yvonte Neal
: 5' 7"; Senior
: G

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

#24 Catherine Kruschke
: 6' 0"; Junior
: F