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Oklahoma City University Athletics

Oklahoma City University
Home Of Champions|73 National Championships
Tharone Chilton

Men's Basketball

OCU at USAO men's basketball preview

Stars resume conference play

Tharone Chilton's 52.3 percent field-goal percentage ranks fourth in the conference.
8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8
USAO Fieldhouse in Chickasha, Okla.
 
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University looks for a Sooner Athletic Conference road win against USAO in its first league contest of the second semester.
 
ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City cruised past St. Thomas 91-74 on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (5-3, 1-1 SAC play) built advantages in points in the paint (50-24), second-chance points (23-10) and fastbreak points (14-3).
Gary Inglett, a 6-foot-6 senior from Ardmore, Okla., boosted OCU with 23 points and seven rebounds while shooting 8-for-12 from the field. Inglett produces 15.0 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Among NAIA Division I, Inglett ranks third in defensive rebounds per game (7.9) and ninth in overall rebounding.
Tharone Chilton, a 6-2 senior from Tulsa, Okla., contributed 19 points and six rebounds. Chilton connected on 7 of 12 shots from the floor and three 3-pointers. He provides the Stars with 16.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.38 steals a game. Ivan Jelencic, a 6-8 senior from Sibenik, Croatia, had a season-high 13 points while pulling down seven rebounds and knocking down 6 of his 7 field-goal attempts. Jelencic averages 6.3 points and 4.6 rebounds a game.
The Stars rank fourth in the NAIA with 9.25 3-pointers a game. To see how OCU ranks among the national leaders, click here.
OCU has been projected to finish fourth in the SAC by league coaches. Oklahoma City owns six NAIA national championships won in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2008.
Oklahoma City improved to 32-17 against USAO all-time with an 81-64 win Feb. 20 at Abe Lemons Arena in the most recent encounter between the two teams.
 
ABOUT THE DROVERS: USAO suffered a 77-67 exhibition setback to Southwestern Oklahoma State on Dec. 30 in Weatherford, Okla. USAO (1-8, 0-2 SAC) had a 16-9 advantage in bench points.
Markens Charles, a 5-11 junior, propelled USAO with 19 points, five rebounds and five treys. Charles supplies his team with 8.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists a game. Ed'Lexus Collier, a 6-4 senior, had 16 points and seven rebounds. Collier averages 19.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.89 steals a contest.
SAC coaches predicted USAO would finish ninth in the 10-team conference before the season.
 
ABOUT THE COACHES: Dionne Phelps owns a 50-41 record in his fourth season as OCU coach. He led the Stars to the SAC Tournament title and an NAIA Division I Tournament appearance in 2012-13. Phelps took over the Stars after serving as assistant coach for Oklahoma, which featured future No. 1 NBA Draft pick Blake Griffin during his tenure. Phelps has been a part of five conference title teams as well as three NCAA Tournament teams during his 24-year coaching career. Phelps played for Texas Lutheran, eventually joining the Bulldog Athletic Hall of Fame.
Doug Hall is in his first season as USAO coach. Hall had spent the previous four years as an assistant at Missouri-Kansas City. Prior to that, he posted a 145-92 record as Southwestern (Kan.) coach from 2001-09.
 
QUOTABLE: "That's what he's having to do, and that's what we're trying to teach him to do is that teams are going to focus on you. You have to figure out how you can impact your stats and impact our team and impact the game doing other things. If it's not going to be scoring, then help us out defensively, get on the glass and start rebounding for us. He was going for a triple-double. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the way our team played without him having to score big." – Phelps on leading scorer R.J. McGhee having 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists Saturday
 
FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest from 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 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. To listen to the game, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Andrew Himes serves as the voice of the Stars.
USAO will provide live stats and live video.
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Players Mentioned

R.J. McGhee

#1 R.J. McGhee

F
6' 6"
Senior
Ivan Jelencic

#33 Ivan Jelencic

F
6' 8"
Senior
Gary Inglett

#2 Gary Inglett

F
6' 6"
Senior
Tharone Chilton

#11 Tharone Chilton

G
6' 2"
Senior

Players Mentioned

R.J. McGhee

#1 R.J. McGhee

6' 6"
Senior
F
Ivan Jelencic

#33 Ivan Jelencic

6' 8"
Senior
F
Gary Inglett

#2 Gary Inglett

6' 6"
Senior
F
Tharone Chilton

#11 Tharone Chilton

6' 2"
Senior
G