8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center
THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City collides with defending national champion Mid-America Christian in a matchup of two top-10 teams.
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: Oklahoma City dropped a New Year's Eve exhibition against West Texas A&M 95-63 at First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas. The Stars (11-1, 2-0 SAC) fell behind 20-6 early.
Terence Bonhomme and Xavier Smith both had 12 points for the Stars in the loss. Smith, a 6-foot-9 senior from Richardson, Texas, paced OCU with seven rebounds and two blocked shots. He ranks sixth in the NAIA with 2.33 blocks per contest.
Bonhomme, a 6-foot junior out of St. Martinville, La., dished out two assists and grabbed one rebound. He leads OCU with 18.0 points to go along with 4.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.58 steals per contest. Jonathan Reed, a 5-7 junior from Powder Springs, Ga., led OCU and tied a season high with seven assists. He also provided four points and a steal off the bench.
OCU stands second in the NAIA in total blocks (70) and blocks (5.83) per game. 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.
OCU leads the all-time series against Mid-America Christian 16-8. In the last meeting, the Evangels edged OCU 78-76 on Feb. 4, 2016 at Abe Lemons Arena in Oklahoma City. Bonhomme led all scorers with 34 points. Jerrick Massenburge's free throws with 42 seconds left accounted for the winning points.
ABOUT THE EVANGELS: Mid-America fell in overtime 103-97 against Philander Smith (Ark.) on Monday in Little Rock, Ark. MACU (10-3, 2-0 SAC) led by 13 points at halftime.
Olajuwon Garner, a 6-2 senior, is the leading scorer for the Evangels despite coming off the bench in every game but one this season. He averages 17.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game while leading the NAIA in with 3.83 3-pointers per contest. Tyler Chassion, a 6-7 senior, averages 14.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.08 steals per contest. His 66.7 field goal percentage ranks third in the NAIA
MACU is currently ranked 10th in the nation and has been picked to win the 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.
Josh Gamblin is in his second season has head coach of the Evangels. In his first season at the helm, Gamblin guided the Evangels to their first NAIA championship. At 27, he was the youngest head coach to guide a four-year school to a national championship. Gamblin came to MACU from the University of Oklahoma, where he was a graduate assistant coach under head coach Lon Kruger. Prior to arriving at OU, Gamblin served two years at Southwestern Christian as assistant coach.
QUOTABLE: "Coach Gamblin does a great job with his team, and they have proven to be one of the best teams in the country. We are going to have to raise our level of intensity if we want to compete with them and have a chance. They have one of the most explosive offenses, and our defense has its work cut out for them." – Patel on his excitement for the matchup with Mid-America 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: OCU athletics has partnered with Stretch Internet to provide live and on-demand audio, stats and video of the Stars' games. Follow OCU's games via live audio, stats and video by visiting OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Cost to watch each 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 provides the commentary. 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.
