Men's Basketball 2/20/2015 4:04:00 PM

OCU vs. USAO men’s basketball preview

The Stars remain in third in the SAC with three games remaining in the regular season

Dema Sane score all of the Stars bench points against St. Gregory's.

5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University hosts Sooner Athletic Conference foe USAO on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena.
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.

ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City knocked off St. Gregory's 94-85 on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (14-7, 10-5 SAC) erased an 11-point deficit in the first half to build an 11-point lead with 1:15 remaining.
Tharone Chilton, a 6-foot-2 senior from Tulsa, Okla., collected 31 points, 10 assists and three steals. Chilton scored 67 points in the past two games. He averages 17.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.57 steals a game.
Gary Inglett, a 6-6 senior from Ardmore, Okla., recorded his ninth double-double of the season with 24 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. Inglett leads the team in scoring and rebounds with 19.0 and 10.2 a game.
Ivan Jelencic, a 6-8 senior from Sibenik, Croatia, contributed his first double-double as a Star with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Jelencic adds 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds a game.
OCU dropped one spot to 24th in the top 25 in the latest edition of the NAIA Division I rankings. The Stars were 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 33-17 against USAO all-time with a 78-76 win Jan. 8 in Chickasha, Okla. in the most recent encounter between the two teams.

ABOUT THE DROVERS: USAO is in the midst of a three-game skid, falling 73-70 to Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) Thursday in Chickasha, Okla. The Drovers (6-16, 5-10) tied the game at 70-70 with 50 seconds remaining but were unable to pull the upset.
Ed'Lexus Collier, a 6-4 senior, led the charge with 18 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Collier leads the team in four statistical categories: points (16.5), rebounds (5.9), steals (1.55), and blocks (0.55).
Jerry Coriolan, a 6-6 senior, nailed a 3-pointer that tied the game and finished with 16 points, one rebound and one assist. Coriolan contributes 10.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.18 steals a game.
SAC coaches predicted USAO would finish ninth in the 10-team conference before the season.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Dionne Phelps owns a 59-45 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: "It's a very tough matchup,I don't care what their record says. They are a very physical team. They are a very confident team. They feel like every shot that goes up goes in. We are going to have to play hard for 40 minutes because they are so relentless." - Phelps

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 watch, listen to or follow the game on live stats, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Andrew Himes calls the action.
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

#33 Ivan Jelencic: F; 6' 8"; Senior

#2 Gary Inglett: F; 6' 6"; Senior

#11 Tharone Chilton: G; 6' 2"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#33 Ivan Jelencic
: 6' 8"; Senior
: F

#2 Gary Inglett
: 6' 6"; Senior
: F

#11 Tharone Chilton
: 6' 2"; Senior
: G

Players Mentioned

#33 Ivan Jelencic

#2 Gary Inglett

#11 Tharone Chilton

Players Mentioned

#33 Ivan Jelencic

#2 Gary Inglett

#11 Tharone Chilton