Women's Basketball 2/27/2015 8:38:00 AM

OCU vs. John Brown women's basketball preview

Stars to recognize their six seniors

OCU's seniors have led the Stars to a 48-5 record the past two seasons.

6 p.m. Monday, March 2
Abe Lemons Arena inside Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University ends the regular season with a contest against Sooner Athletic Conference foe John Brown (Ark.).
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. For the OCU athletics visitors guide, click here.

ABOUT THE STARS: The Stars cruised to an 87-44 victory over Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) on Thursday in Waxahachie, Texas. Oklahoma City (21-2, 16-1 SAC) wrapped up its sixth consecutive and 16th overall SAC regular-season championship plus the top seed in the SAC Tournament on March 4-7 at Abe Lemons Arena.
Marisha Wallace, a 6-foot-2 senior from Midwest City, Okla., totaled 24 points and 10 rebounds on 10-for-11 shooting from the field in 24 minutes of play. She has averaged 17.9 points and 8.5 rebounds a game over the past eight contests. Wallace records 15.4 points and 8.0 rebounds a game to go with a 54.9 percent field-goal percentage.
Rateska Brown, a 5-6 guard from Alvin, S.C., aided the Stars with 22 points and three steals. She sank 8 of 11 shots from the floor and 6-of-8 on 3-pointers. Brown accumulates 19.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.87 steals a game. Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-2 senior from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, had 12 points and 15 rebounds. Coulibaly averages 16.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game while hitting 54.8 percent of her field-goal attempts.
Janay Borum tops NAIA Division I in assists (7.0 per game), while OCU leads the NAIA in team assists at 19.1 a contest. To see where the Stars rank statistically among the NAIA, click here.
The Stars held the No. 2 slot in the national rankings for the ninth consecutive week. OCU has been ranked in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 188 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 16 times, including the last six in a row.
OCU has posted a 41-5 all-time record against John Brown. The Stars slipped past John Brown 71-69 on Jan. 29 in Siloam Springs, Ark. Yvonte Neal sank the game-winning layup with 23 seconds to go.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLES: John Brown stumbled to an 80-58 setback to Southwestern Christian on Thursday in Bethany, Okla. John Brown (11-17, 6-11 SAC) slipped into a tie for seventh place in the conference standings, assuring that the Golden Eagles would play in the first round of the SAC Tournament on March 4.
Sofia Mendoza, a 6-5 junior, piled up 17 points and eight rebounds Thursday. Mendoza records 10.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.00 blocked shots a game to go with a 57.5 percent field-goal percentage. Morgan Ankstrom, a 6-foot senior, had 16 points and eight rebounds. Ankstrom averages 7.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
John Brown ranks 12th nationally in made 3-pointers. Conference coaches projected John Brown to take third in the SAC.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell was the 2014 NAIA Division I Phyllis Holmes coach of the year. Trammell has a 76-10 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 141-86 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.
Jeff Soderquist is John Brown's winningest women's basketball coach with a 265-296 record in his 18th season. He took John Brown to its first semifinals appearance in four NAIA Tournament appearances. The John Brown alum led the Golden Eagles to their finest season ever in 2013-14 at 28-8.

QUOTABLE: "I'm very proud of this team and their commitment to each other. We have a tough conference, and to win the championship again means a great deal to our program. We are not finished yet. We reached one championship goal, and now it's time to work on another." – Trammell

ABOUT THE SAC TOURNAMENT: The nation's premier NAIA basketball conference stages its postseason tournament at Abe Lemons Arena in Oklahoma City on March 4-7. NAIA Division I Tournament berths will be at stake in the SAC men's and women's basketball tournaments.

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, stats and video, 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

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

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

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