OCU vs. Bacone men's basketball preview

Stars stand three games out of first place in SAC

Brandon Patten topped OCU with 10 rebounds Monday night.

Men's Basketball | 2/17/2016 5:17:00 PM

8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University jockeys for positioning within the Sooner Athletic Conference standings as the Stars host Bacone.
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 escaped with a 71-67 victory over Southwestern Christian on Monday at Abe Lemons Arena. Lou Dunbar's jumper and three free throws in the final 6.4 seconds lifted the Stars (12-8, 9-5 SAC).
Dunbar, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Seabrook, Texas, poured in a career-high 27 points to go with six 3-pointers. Dunbar nailed 8 of 14 shots from the field and 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Dunbar provides OCU with 11.6 points and 43.6 percent 3-point shooting.
Terence Bonhomme, a 6-foot sophomore from St. Martinsville, La., delivered 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Bonhomme supplies the Stars with 16.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.90 steals a contest plus a 35.9 percent 3-point shooting percentage. Brandon Patten, a 6-7 sophomore from Orange Park, Fla., had a career-best six points and 10 rebounds while hitting all three shots from the floor. Patten averages 1.0 points and 1.9 rebounds a game.
The Stars haul in 13.2 offensive rebounds a game to rank 17th nationally, while Bonhomme's 84.7 percent free-throw percentage ranks 11th in NAIA Division I. To see how OCU compares statistically to the rest of the NAIA, click here.
OCU moved to 25th in the newest NAIA top 25. The Stars have been slotted to take sixth in the SAC according to the preseason coaches poll. Oklahoma City has won or shared the SAC regular-season championship 12 times, most recently in 2007-08. Oklahoma City owns six NAIA national championships won in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2008.
The Stars trampled Bacone 91-77 on Jan. 7 in Muskogee, Okla., in the first men's basketball ever between the two institutions. Bonhomme led the Stars with 19 points, seven rebounds and five steals. OCU allowed 22 rebounds, a season low for a Stars opponent.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS: Texas Wesleyan, then ranked eighth nationally, posted a 78-62 victory over Bacone on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. Bacone (2-23, 1-13 SAC) dropped its fourth in a row and 18th in its last 19 games.
Geo Brewer, a 6-3 sophomore, put together 15 points, five rebounds and three steals. Brewer gathers 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.58 steals a game. Corey Swift, a 6-6 sophomore, had 11 points and five rebounds. Swift averages 10.1 points and 5.3 rebounds a game.
Bacone ranks 26th in the NAIA in total steals (203) this season. Bacone had been predicted to finish last in the SAC in the preseason.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Vinay Patel embarks on his first season as OCU head coach. He came to Oklahoma City after spending one season as Rogers State's assistant coach. He aided Rogers State to a 20-8 season led by conference player of the year Frederico Santos. Patel spent nine years as assistant at West Texas A&M. During that time, West Texas went to the NCAA Division II Tournament five times, won the Lone Star Conference championship and took two Lone Star South Division titles. He elevated to the interim head-coaching position before he ended his time at West Texas A&M.
Alan Foster has directed Bacone to a 278-364 record in his 16th season at the helm. Foster, also the Bacone athletic director, became 2004 Red River Athletic Conference coach of the year and guided Bacone to its only NAIA Tournament appearance in 2010.

QUOTABLE: "I told them we won that game yesterday in practice. I felt really good about it. My wife called and asked, 'How was practice?' and I said it was probably the best practice we have had in a while. I thought we won that there. If we can bring that the rest of the week, taking it a day at a time and worry about winning practice, the games will come a little bit easier." – Patel on the Stars' preparation leading up to Monday's victory

FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest from OCU athletics through several ways.
Check out OCU athletics on several social media platforms by looking up the handle @ocustars. The Stars are on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and new for 2015-16, Instagram.
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. Follow the game via live audio, stats and video by visiting OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Cost to watch the game is $7.95 per game, $29.95 to see all 2015-16 home games and $79.95 to watch all of OCU's action in every sport in 2015-16. Chris Cox will provide the play-by-play.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme: G; 6' 0"; Sophomore

#22 Lou Dunbar: G; 6' 3"; Sophomore

#23 Brandon Patten: F; 6' 7"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme
: 6' 0"; Sophomore
: G

#22 Lou Dunbar
: 6' 3"; Sophomore
: G

#23 Brandon Patten
: 6' 7"; Sophomore
: F

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme

#22 Lou Dunbar

#23 Brandon Patten

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme

#22 Lou Dunbar

#23 Brandon Patten