Women's Basketball 1/23/2015 4:23:00 PM

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

Stars sit in first place in SAC

Rateska Brown leads the Stars with 20.3 points per game.

3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24
W.P. Wood Field House in Shawnee, Okla.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University looks to remain undefeated in Sooner Athletic Conference play against St. Gregory's.

ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City pummeled Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) 94-43 on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (12-1, 6-0 SAC) pounced to a 14-1 lead while making 5 of their first 7 shots.
Rateska Brown, a 5-foot-6 senior from Alvin, S.C., tied a career high with 31 points while making 6 of 11 3-pointers. She also added five rebounds, five assists and three steals to her resume for the night. Brown leads the Stars in scoring averaging 20.3 points and steals with 2.77 a game. Her 3.6 3-pointers made a game ranks third in NAIA Division I.
Marisha Wallace, a 6-2 senior from Midwest City, compiled her second career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds and added three steals. Wallace averages 14.3 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-2 senior from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, was a point shy of her fifth double-double of the season with nine points and 10 rebounds. Coulibaly puts up 16.4 points and pulls down 8.2 rebounds per game for the Stars.
The Stars provide 18.9 assists per game, which ranks No. 1 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 37-1 record against St. Gregory's. The Stars broke the century mark, outscoring the Cavaliers 103-54 on Feb. 18, 2014 at Abe Lemons Arena. Coulibaly scored 19 points in the matchup.

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: St. Gregory's is on a three-game skid entering Saturday's game. The Cavaliers (2-13, 1-5) lost to Texas Wesleyan 74-45 on Saturday in Shawnee, Okla. St. Gregory's game originally scheduled for Thursday against Wayland Baptist (Texas) in Plainview, Texas, was rescheduled for Monday.
Courtney Leach, a 5-8 sophomore, led the way for St. Gregory's with 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. Leach averages 8.9 points and 4.7 rebounds a game. Denisha Lundy, a 5-6 junior, added 11 points and three rebounds. Lundy leads the team in scoring with 14.3 points per game and pulls down 5.3 rebounds a game.
St. Gregory's was picked to finish last in the preseason SAC 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.
Josiah White enters his third season as coach of St. Gregory's. He led them to a second-round showing in the SAC Tournament last season, beating Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) 67-66 in overtime. He has helped coach three NAIA all-Americans and two NJCAA all-American and has been part of six national tournament teams.

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.
Follow the game via live stats and video here.

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Players Mentioned

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

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

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

Players Mentioned

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

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

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

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly

#45 Marisha Wallace

#3 Rateska Brown

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly

#45 Marisha Wallace

#3 Rateska Brown