OCU vs. USAO women's basketball preview

Stars own 7-1 home record this season

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

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University finishes a three-game run of home contests against 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: The Stars hammered Bacone 72-55 on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena. OCU (15-7, 12-3 Sooner Athletic Conference) held the lead for all but 5:34 of the game.
Allison Frey, a 5-foot-9 sophomore from Mustang, Okla., tallied 20 points and five 3-pointers. Frey reached 20 points and five treys for the third time each this season. Frey supplies OCU with 11.0 points and 2.1 rebounds a game while nailing 39.7 percent from 3-point range.
Daniela Wallen, a 5-11 junior from Caracas, Venezuela, posted her league-high 10th double-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals. Wallen accumulates 20.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.48 steals a game. She leads the conference in scoring, steals, field-goal percentage (52 percent) and SAC player of the week awards (three). Markeisha Johnson, a 5-9 senior from Mansura, La., had 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Johnson averages 8.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.94 thefts a contest.
Wallen tops the NAIA with 7.3 defensive rebounds a game while ranking second in scoring and third in steals average, while OCU ranks 15th with a 42.5 shooting clip from the field. To see where the Stars rank statistically among the NAIA, click here.
The Stars held onto 18th in the latest edition of the national rankings. OCU extended its streak of top-25 showings to 200 consecutive polls since 1999-2000. OCU owns national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014 and 2015. SAC coaches expect the Stars to finish second in the league. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 16 times, including the last six in a row. Oklahoma City has gone 125-10 (.926 winning percentage) against SAC competition since 2009-10.
Oklahoma City's record against USAO stands at 50-3. The Stars trounced USAO 62-48 on Jan. 23 in Chickasha, Okla.

ABOUT THE DROVERS: USAO suffered a 67-44 setback to SAC front-runner Wayland Baptist (Texas) on Thursday in Chickasha, Okla. USAO (5-15, 4-11 SAC) entered the contest on a season-best two-game winning streak.
Mahogany Nelms, a 5-8 junior, picked up 14 points and three rebounds. Nelms racks up 13.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.10 steals a game. Ilze Teilani, a 6-6 senior, had eight points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots. Teilani averages 6.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.45 blocked shots a game.
Teilani and USAO sit atop the NAIA with 5.75 blocks a game. SAC coaches predicted USAO would place sixth in the league.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Bo Overton is in his debut season with OCU. Overton has a wide array of 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.
Darrick Matthews is in his first season at USAO after serving as the head women's basketball coach at Southwestern Christian. He led the Eagles to an 18-19 record and a fourth place-finish in the National Christian College Athletic Association Division I National Tournament. Prior to being the women's head coach at SCU, he spent two seasons as a men's assistant at SCU, a season at Sul Ross State (Texas) as an assistant women's basketball coach and an assistant to the men's team at Cooper High School in Abilene, Texas.

QUOTABLE: "I think her teammates did a great job giving her the ball, and she shot with a lot of confidence tonight." – Overton on the Frey's 5-for-13 shooting from 3-point territory Thursday

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 of the Stars' games. To follow the game via live audio, stats and video, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here.
Joel Reagan will call the action. Reagan served as the regular voice of the Stars in 2005-06 and provided play-by-play for OCU's NAIA men's basketball championship game appearances in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#25 Markeisha Johnson: F; 5' 9"; Senior

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

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

Players Mentioned

#25 Markeisha Johnson
: 5' 9"; Senior
: F

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

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

Players Mentioned

#25 Markeisha Johnson

#34 Allison Frey

#22 Daniela Wallen

Players Mentioned

#25 Markeisha Johnson

#34 Allison Frey

#22 Daniela Wallen