Women's Basketball | 1/18/2017 2:33:00 PM
6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University looks to stay unbeaten at home this season against conference foe St. Gregory's.
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.
ABOUT THE STARS: The Stars took their first conference loss of the season against Wayland Baptist (Texas) 78-72 on Monday in Plainview, Texas. OCU (14-2, 4-1 Sooner Athletic Conference) used a 13-2 run in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to two, but failed to get any closer.
Daniela Wallen, a 5-foot-11 senior from Caracas, Venezuela, lead all scorers with 33 points to go along with eight rebounds and six steals. It is the fifth time this season Wallen has scored more than 30 points in a game. Wallen accumulates 24.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.81 steals per game, leading the NAIA in scoring.
Daniela Galindo, a junior out of Shattuck, Okla., chipped in 10 points while adding two rebounds and five steals. Galindo averages 15.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.31 steals a contest. Alexis Hill, a 6-1 junior from Byng, Okla., had eight points and five rebounds. Hill provides OCU with 5.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.
OCU tops the NAIA in both field-goal percentage (49.9) and free throw percentage (79.3). To see where the Stars rank statistically among NAIA Division I, click here.
The Stars moved up to seventh in the latest rankings. OCU extended its streak of top-25 showings to 208 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.
OCU owns a 42-1 all-time record against St. Gregory's. The last time the two teams played, the Stars ran away with a 76-57 win at the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament on March 3, 2016 in Waxahachie, Texas. Wallen posted 21 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: St. Gregory's fell to Southwestern Christian 70-55 on Monday in Bethany, Okla. The Cavaliers (2-11, 0-6 SAC) lost their ninth straight game of the season.
Kylee Tatum, a 5-10 senior, collected 16 points, three rebound and one assist. Tatum produces 18.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.08 assists per contest. She ranks 11th in the NAIA in points per game. Shanques Garrett, a 6-3 senior, had 13 points, eight rebounds and one block. Garrett averages 6.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.08 blocks per game.
St. Gregory's shoots 71.2 percent from the free throw line to rank 23rd nationally. The Cavaliers were predicted to finish ninth in the SAC before the season.
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.
Jenone Bell is in his second season at the helm of the Cavaliers. In her first year, she helped more than double the program's win total from each of the previous two seasons, finishing with a mark of 10-16. She brings 20 years of coaching experience to Shawnee. She came to St. Gregory's after serving three seasons as the head coach at Southern University-Shreveport. Bell was an assistant at Lindenwood (Mo.) and Lincoln (Mo.) a combined 14 years prior to that.
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: 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. Cost to watch the game is $7.95 per game, $34.95 to see all 2016-17 home basketball games and $79.95 to watch all of OCU's action in every sport in 2016-17.
Andrew Himes will call the action. Himes, in his sixth season as the voice of the Stars, has been broadcasting OCU games for nine years starting on color commentary as an OCU student.
