OCU vs. USAO men's basketball preview

Stars holds third spot in SAC standings

5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University tries to solidify a top spot in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings with a regular-season series sweep of USAO.
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 overpowered Bacone 77-57 on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena. OCU outrebounded the Warriors 43-24 while shooting 50 percent from 3-point land and holding Bacone to 20 percent from 3.
Terence Bonhomme, a 6-foot sophomore from St. Martinsville, La., scored 14 points and added two steals. Bonhomme contributes a team-high 16.8 points a contest to go along with a 36.7 percent 3-point shooting percentage.
Jordan Mason, a 6-2 junior from Ennis, Texas, supplied OCU with 11 points and eight rebounds with two assists. Mason averages 5.7 points and 2.2 rebounds per game with a 38.8 percent field-goal percentage. Dorion Gigger, a 6-5 junior from Oklahoma City, notched his eighth double-double of the season with 10 points and 16 rebounds. Gigger averages 10.7 points a game and a team-high 9.3 rebounds per game.
The Stars collect 33.8 total rebounds a game to rank 18th 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 erased an eight-point halftime deficit to edge the Drovers 89-82 on Jan. 23, 2016 in Chickasha, Okla. OCU's all-time record against USAO is 35-17.

ABOUT THE DROVERS: USAO outlasted Wayland Baptist (Texas) 110-98 on Thursday in Chickasha, Okla. USAO (13-10, 8-7 SAC) shot 54.4 percent from the field and made 39 of 55 free-throw attempts.
Taran Buie, a 6-2 junior, had 35 points, five rebounds and five assists. Buie averages 24.0 points and 5.0 rebounds, while shooting 36.9 percent from 3-point range. David Tucker, a 6-2 senior, scored 33 points with three rebounds and an assist. Tucker posts 16.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per contest.
USAO's 89.2 points per game ranks 12th in NAIA Division I. Conference coaches predicted USAO to take seventh 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.
Chris Francis took over as USAO head coach in March 2015. Francis had been an assistant at USAO the past two seasons after previously serving as an assistant at LSU-Shreveport. Francis became a student assistant after setting the career record for games played at Rogers State.

QUOTABLE: "They are a very good offensive team. They score the ball at will. They scored a ton of points when we were down at their place. We basically won in the last two minutes of the game. They have some really good interior players that are high flyers and they have some very good perimeter scorers, one of the best in the league in Buie. So we will have our hands full for sure in our gym. Coach Francis is doing a heck of a job with his team. I give him a lot of credit. He is a young coach in this league like I am and we've gotten to know each other pretty well. I like what he is doing with his team. I think he has a really good basketball team that can really score the ball." – Patel on Saturday's match against USAO

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. Joel Reagan will provide the commentary. Reagan served as the Stars' regular play-by-play man in 2005-06 and called OCU's national championship game appearances in 2006, 2007 and 2008. 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.

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Players Mentioned

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

#32 Dorion Gigger: F; 6' 5"; Junior

#24 Jordan Mason: G; 6' 2"; Junior

Players Mentioned

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

#32 Dorion Gigger
: 6' 5"; Junior
: F

#24 Jordan Mason
: 6' 2"; Junior
: G

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme

#32 Dorion Gigger

#24 Jordan Mason

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme

#32 Dorion Gigger

#24 Jordan Mason