5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University aims for a regular-season series sweep of St. Gregory's in the last day of regular-season games in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
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 used a Lou Dunbar putback basket with 1.5 seconds on the clock to edge third-ranked SAC regular-season champion Texas Wesleyan 74-73 on Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas. OCU (14-9, 11-6 SAC) ended the Rams' 17-game winning streak and have secured the third seed in the SAC Tournament. Dunbar, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Seabrook, Texas, scored 11 points, while shooting 3-for-3 from the 3-point land. Dunbar averages 11.4 points per game with a 44.8 3-point shooting percentage. This was his second game-winning shot the past two weeks.
Terence Bonhomme, a 6-foot sophomore from St. Martinsville, La., had a team-high 17 points and two steals. Bonhomme supplies the Stars with a team-high 17.4 points and 1.87 steals a game to go along with a 42.8 percent shooting percentage. Jonathan Reed, a 5-7 sophomore from Powder Springs, Ga., led OCU with four assists, while adding 11 points and two assists. Reed tallies 5.8 points, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals per contest.
The Stars' 70.4 free-throw percentage ranks 24th nationally, while Bonhomme's 84.0 percent free-throw percentage rates 12th in NAIA Division I. To see how OCU compares statistically to the rest of the NAIA, click here.
OCU has a share of 25th in the latest 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 own the series lead at 36-3 against St. Gregory's. The Stars overcame a 15-point halftime deficit to defeat the Cavaliers 64-61 on Jan. 21 in Shawnee, Okla. Bonhomme drained a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left to give the Stars a 62-61 edge, while a pair of free throws strengthened the lead.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: St. Gregory's eased past John Brown (Ark.) 85-74 on Thursday in Shawnee, Okla. The Cavaliers (10-15, 5-12 SAC) shot 57.4 percent from the field and held the Golden Eagles to 40.7 percent shooting.
Richard Shields, a 6-3 senior, had 27 points, six assists and four rebounds. Shields amasses 19.4 points and 6.3 rebounds a contest, while shooting 47.9 percent from the field. Kevin Ritchie, a 5-10 guard, notched 10 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Ritchie posts 10.8 points and 2.6 assists per game with a 37.6 3-point shooting percentage.
St. Gregory's 72.9 percent free-throw percentage ranks fifth in NAIA Division I. The Cavaliers were picked to finish ninth in the conference 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.
John Martin is in his eighth year as the Cavalier men's basketball coach with a 78-150 overall record. In the 2013-14 season, Martin guided SGU to a program-best 24-10 record and a Fab Four appearance in the NAIA Division I Tournament. Prior to SGU, Martin was as a head coach at Moore High School and John Marshall High School. He served as an assistant at Carl Albert State, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Bishop McGuinness High School and Oklahoma City University. The OCU alum played on the 1994 national championship team and was a graduate assistant on the 1996 national championship team.
QUOTABLE: "It was a great team win on the road tonight. These guys just continue to fight. I thought we did a much better job defensively in the second half to give ourselves a chance late." – Patel on the win Thursday over Texas Wesleyan ABOUT THE SAC TOURNAMENT: The nation's premier NAIA basketball conference stages its postseason tournament at the Sheaffer Center in Waxahachie, Texas on March 2-5. NAIA Division I Tournament berths will be at stake in the SAC men's and women's basketball tournaments. OCU has clinched the third seed in the tournament.
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.
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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.
