Leah Cheney has averaged 13.0 points and 2.50 steals per game the past two games.

Women's Basketball 2/17/2016 4:25:00 PM

OCU vs. Bacone women's basketball preview

Stars aim to maintain second place in SAC standings

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

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University tries to remain in contention for the Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season championship in a matchup with 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: OCU snatched a 74-64 victory off Southwestern Christian on Monday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (14-7, 11-3 SAC) used a 9-0 run early in the fourth quarter to create a double-digit lead en route to the win.
Daniela Wallen, a 5-foot-11 junior from Caracas, Venezuela, accumulated 24 points, nine rebounds and three steals. She piles up 20.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.55 steals a contest while hitting 52.1 percent from the field. Wallen leads the SAC in scoring, steals and double-doubles (nine).
Catherine Kruschke, a 6-foot senior from Dublin, Calif., collected 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Kruschke picks up 13.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Leah Cheney, a 5-6 junior from Ault, Colo., had 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and three 3-pointers. Cheney averages 7.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.76 steals a contest.
OCU ranks 16th with a 42.4 percent team field-goal percentage, while Wallen sits second in scoring and defensive rebounds per game (7.2) in NAIA Division I. Check out how OCU compares with the rest of NAIA Division I this season statistically by clicking here.
Oklahoma City kept the 18th spot in the latest national rankings. OCU has been in all 200 NAIA polls since 1999-2000. Oklahoma City owns national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014 and 2015. The Stars were expected to finish second in the preseason SAC poll. OCU has won or shared the regular-season league title 16 times, including the last six. OCU owns a 124-10 conference mark (.925 winning percentage) since 2009-10.
The Stars won their first meeting ever against Bacone in a romp 91-59 on Jan. 7 in Muskogee, Okla. OCU scored a season high, while Allison Frey reached 20 points for the second time this season.

ABOUT THE LADY WARRIORS: Bacone erased an 11-point deficit to stun Texas Wesleyan 70-52 on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. Bacone (9-14, 5-9 SAC) shot a season-best 54.8 percent from the field.
Jasmine Flanagan, a 5-5 senior, totaled 23 points, four assists and four steals. Flanagan posts team highs with 16.3 points and 4.1 assists a game. Brittany Edwards, a 5-6 freshman, had a season-high 15 points, nailing 5 of 9 treys. Edwards averages 3.9 points per contest, hitting 40.6 percent of her 3-point tries.
Bacone rates seventh nationally in team steals per game (11.91). Bacone has been ticketed by SAC coaches to end up 10th in the 10-team league in the preseason.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Bo Overton is in his debut season with OCU. Overton has a wide array of head-coaching experience on the professional level in China, Russia and the WNBA, as well as college head-coaching experience with Missouri-Kansas City. Overton has been an assistant on the international level for the Bahamas and China, including the 2012 Olympics with the Chinese team. Overton is well known among Oklahomans for his stint as an assistant to Sherri Coale at Oklahoma from 1998-2004 as well as playing college basketball at Oklahoma.
Josh Nichols enters his first season as the Lady Warriors head coach after serving as the assistant coach for the men's basketball program for the last four years. Prior to Bacone, Nichols spent four years as an assistant at Iowa Wesleyan and two and a half seasons at Johnson County (Kan.). In 2002 as a team captain, Nichols helped lead Oklahoma Wesleyan to the NCCAA Tournament. After his playing days, he served as the head varsity assistant from 2002-04 at Oklahoma Wesleyan.

QUOTABLE: "We had to play some zone early to keep from not fouling. Once we got to halftime, I felt like we could mix that up a little bit. I thought it really helped, it kept them off the 3-point line. The girls did a great job of playing defense. We got it going against their zone by making some shots." – Overton on Monday's win

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 hoops games and $79.95 to watch all of OCU's action in every sport in 2015-16. Chris Cox will call the games.

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Players Mentioned

#24 Catherine Kruschke: F; 6' 0"; Senior

#10 Leah Cheney: G; 5' 6"; Junior

#34 Allison Frey: G; 5' 9"; Sophomore

#22 Daniela Wallen: F; 5' 11"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#24 Catherine Kruschke
: 6' 0"; Senior
: F

#10 Leah Cheney
: 5' 6"; Junior
: G

#34 Allison Frey
: 5' 9"; Sophomore
: G

#22 Daniela Wallen
: 5' 11"; Junior
: F