Women's Basketball 1/16/2015 2:14:00 PM

OCU vs. Oklahoma Baptist women's basketball preview

Saturday's game to be marquee matchup of top 10-ranked teams in NAIA women's basketball

Catherine Kruschke provides the Stars with 6.2 points and 4.5 rebounds a game.

3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University puts an undefeated Sooner Athletic Conference record on the line against Oklahoma Baptist.
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. If the Stars score 70 points, fans will get a prize from Raising Cane's. For the OCU athletics visitors guide, click here.
OCU will honor its 2014-15 Athletic Hall of Fame class earlier Saturday. For information on the induction, click here.

ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City put down Southwestern Christian 89-56 on Thursday night at Pickens-Springer Gymnasium. The Stars (10-1, 5-0 SAC) controlled points in the paint with a 36-10 advantage over Southwestern Christian.
Yvonte Neal, a 5-foot-7 senior from Spring Valley, Calif., was the game's leading scorer with 27 points, hitting on 7-of-9 3-pointers. Neal averages 19.8 points per game and shoots 92.9 percent (13-of-14) from the free-throw line.
Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-2 senior from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, contributed her fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and tracked down 11 rebounds. Coulibaly averages nearly a double-double a game with 17.5 points and 8.2 rebounds. Marisha Wallace, a 6-2 senior from Midwest City, Okla., added 15 points, four rebounds and three steals off the bench for the Stars. In four games, Wallace puts up 13.5 points and grabs 6.3 rebounds a contest.
Janay Borum supplies OCU with 6.7 assists per game, which ranks second in the NAIA. The Stars lead the country in assists per game with 18.7. 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 boasts a 46-23 record in the all-time series with Oklahoma Baptist. The Stars secured the SAC regular-season championship with a 72-68 win over OBU on March 1, 2014 at Abe Lemons Arena.

ABOUT THE LADY BISON: Oklahoma Baptist clobbered Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) 92-40 Thursday in Shawnee, Okla. The Lady Bison (12-2, 4-1 SAC) forced SAGU into 29 turnovers in the game.
Charity Fowler, a 5-8 senior, led the charge for the Lady Bison with 15 points and added six rebounds and two steals. Fowler made four of her seven shots from the floor and was a perfect 2-for-2 from downtown. She leads the team in scoring and assists with 12.8 points and 4 assists per game. Raquel Dudzevich added her third double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. The 6-2 junior scores 9.8 points and pulls down 6.9 rebounds per game.
Oklahoma Baptist was picked to finished behind OCU in the SAC preseason coaches' poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell was the 2014 NAIA Division I Phyllis Holmes coach of the year. Trammell has a 65-9 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 130-85 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.
Casi Bays is in her third season as the Lady Bison head coach. She has a 42-20 record as the head coach at OBU. In her second season Bays was named Sooner Athletic Conference coach of the year after leading the Lady Bison to a 28-6 record, finishing second in the SAC regular season with a 17-3 conference record. The Lady Bison won the conference tournament for the first time in program history and returned to the NAIA Tournament after a three-year absence.

QUOTABLE: "I'm just proud. Any time you can get a win on the road, it's something to be proud of. We are just looking forward to our game Saturday." – Trammell about the win Thursday

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 video, audio or live stats, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Andrew Himes will call the game.
The live audio and stats will be provided free of charge, while the cost to see the video will be $7.95. A men's basketball season pass that allows you to see all the Stars' home games this season costs $29.95, while a 2014-15 all-sports pass costs $79.95.

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Players Mentioned

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

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

#45 Marisha Wallace: C; 6' 2"; Senior

#11 Janay Borum: G; 5' 2"; Senior

Players Mentioned

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

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

#45 Marisha Wallace
: 6' 2"; Senior
: C

#11 Janay Borum
: 5' 2"; Senior
: G