Men's Basketball | 1/13/2017 3:16:00 PM
5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16
Hutcherson Center in Plainview, Texas
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City travels to Plainview, Texas for a Martin Luther King Day matchup with Wayland Baptist (Texas).
The game was originally scheduled for Saturday but has been postponed due to inclement weather.
ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City edged Southwestern Christian 85-84 on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena in Oklahoma City. Syrus McDonald hit a free throw with 2.6 seconds remaining to give the Stars (13-2, 4-1 SAC) a one-point home victory.
Tyler Alderman and Xavier Smith both recorded his double-doubles in the win. Alderman, a 6-9 senior from Fishers, Ind., led the Stars with 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
Smith, a 6-9 senior out of Richardson, Texas, scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. It was Smith's conference leading eighth double-double of the season. He also ranks second in the NAIA with a 92.3 free throw percentage. McDonald, a 6-foot senior from Flint, Mich., provided OCU with 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals. McDonald is averaging 10.5 points, 4.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds per contest this season.
OCU stands second in the NAIA in total blocks (86) as well as blocks per game (5.7). To see how the Stars compare to the rest of the NAIA statistically, click here.
The Stars stayed in the fifth spot in the latest NAIA Division I poll. The Stars have been picked to take second in the SAC according to the preseason coaches' poll. Oklahoma City owns six NAIA national championships won in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2008.
The Stars lead the all-time series between these two schools 43-15. OCU downed Wayland Baptist 107-99 on Dec. 3, 2016 in Oklahoma City. Smith led the Stars with 27 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.
ABOUT THE PIONEERS: Wayland dropped a 100-99 heartbreaker to 10th-ranked defending national champion Mid-America Christian in overtime Friday in Oklahoma City. WBU (11-6, 3-2 SAC) was up 99-95 with two minutes left, but Mid-America rallied.
Maurice Redmond, a 6-2 senior, had 21 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in the loss. He is the leading scorer for the Pioneers, averaging 17.2 points to go along with 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. J.J. Culver, a 6-4 freshman, provided 17 points, five rebounds and four steals off the bench. He averages 7.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.29 steals per contest.
Wayland Baptist has been picked to finish seventh in the 10-team Sooner Athletic Conference.
ABOUT THE COACHES: Vinay Patel enters his second season as OCU head coach. In his first year, Oklahoma City finished 15-11 and tied for second in the Sooner Athletic conference. Before coming to OCU, he spent one season as Rogers State's assistant coach and aided the Hillcats 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.
Former Pioneer all-American Ty Harrelson was named head coach of the Wayland Baptist men's basketball program in the summer of 2015. Harrelson, who played two seasons at Wayland from 2001-03 and holds multiple school records, came to Wayland after playing and coaching professional basketball the past 12 years, most recently in Australia. He is 32-18 in his second season with the Pioneers.
QUOTABLE: "We got absolutely whipped the last two games on the boards against Mid-America and SAGU, so you can bet we focused on turning that around this week. I feel like it can be one of our biggest strengths. We've got some big bodies, but they hadn't been coming up with rebounds on a consistent basis. We were able to do that tonight, and I feel like when we do that we put ourselves in position to come up with some wins." – Patel on the 45-24 rebounding advantage OCU had against Southwestern Christian
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, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Receive the latest OCU athletic headlines via e-mail by going here.
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: Wayland will provide live stats as well as video of the matchup.
