OCU at Wayland Baptist women's basketball preview

Stars look to cool off streaking Flying Queens

3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16
Hutcherson Center in Plainview, Texas

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University takes aim at its first home-and-home sweep of a Sooner Athletic Conference foe this season against Wayland Baptist (Texas).
The contest was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was rescheduled due to icy conditions on the roads.

ABOUT THE STARS: Oklahoma City cruised past Southwestern Christian 81-51 on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (14-1, 5-0 SAC) notched their fifth win by 30 points or more this season.
Daniela Wallen, a 5-foot-11 senior from Caracas, Venezuela, produced 19 points, 11 rebounds and four steals for her 10th double-double of 2016-17. Wallen is the NAIA's leading scorer with 23.9 points along with 9.8 rebounds and 3.67 steals per game.
Brooke Irwin, a 6-3 junior from Mustang, Okla., supplied the Stars with 15 points and seven rebounds while shooting 6-for-9 from the field. Irwin records 10.6 points and 5.5 rebounds a game with a 58.4 percent field-goal percentage. Daniela Galindo, a 5-10 junior from Shattuck, Okla., had 12 points and two steals and sank 2 of 3 from 3-point range. Galindo averages 15.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.13 steals a game.
OCU hold the top spot among the NAIA with a 50.4 percent field-goal percentage and 77.7 percent free-throw percentage. To see where the Stars rank statistically among NAIA Division I, click here.
The Stars went up to eighth in the latest rankings. OCU extended its streak of top-25 showings to 207 consecutive polls since 1999-2000. OCU owns national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014 and 2015. SAC coaches installed the Stars as the league's preseason favorite. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 16 times.
Oklahoma City owns a 37-22 record against Wayland Baptist. OCU walloped Wayland Baptist 100-65 on Dec. 3, 2016 at Abe Lemons Arena in the most previous encounter. Wallen had 31 points, four rebounds and six steals.

ABOUT THE FLYING QUEENS: Wayland Baptist reached 100 points for the second consecutive game in a 101-88 win over Mid-America Christian on Thursday at the Gaulke Activity Center in Oklahoma City. Wayland Baptist (13-2, 4-1 SAC) has won eight consecutive since losing to OCU on Dec. 3.
Deborah VanDijk, a 6-foot freshman, scored 18 points in 18 minutes off the bench. VanDijk adds 11.9 points and 3.7 rebounds a game with a 55.4 percent field-goal percentage. Nina Sato, a 6-2 junior, had 17 points and six rebounds. Sato averages 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Jade Jones, averaging a team-best 15.1 points a game, was the NAIA Division I player of the week as the conference swept the NAIA men's and women's player of the week awards for the first time since Jan. 25-31, 2016.
Wayland Baptist, which received votes in the most recent poll, ranks seventh nationally with a 74.6 percent free-throw percentage. Wayland Baptist took the second spot in the preseason SAC coaches' poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Bo Overton returns to OCU for his second season as its head coach. Overton has 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.
Alesha Robertson-Ellis has guided Wayland Baptist to a 73-31 record with three appearances in the NAIA Tournament in her fourth season at the helm. She took Lubbock Christian High School (Texas) to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) Class 3A state championship prior to becoming the Wayland coach. The four-time all-state player helped Plainview High School (Texas) win three consecutive Class 4A state titles from 2001-03, then went on to play four seasons for Texas Tech.

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.
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: Wayland Baptist will provide live video and live stats of the game.

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Players Mentioned

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

#5 Daniela Galindo: G; 5' 10"; Junior

#40 Brooke Irwin: C; 6' 3"; Junior

Players Mentioned

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

#5 Daniela Galindo
: 5' 10"; Junior
: G

#40 Brooke Irwin
: 6' 3"; Junior
: C

Players Mentioned

#22 Daniela Wallen

#5 Daniela Galindo

#40 Brooke Irwin

Players Mentioned

#22 Daniela Wallen

#5 Daniela Galindo

#40 Brooke Irwin