OCU at USAO men’s basketball preview

Stars and Drovers battle for top spot in SAC standings

Eric McCollum scored five points and grabbed two rebounds in Saturday's win over John Brown (Ark.).

Men's Basketball | 1/31/2018 3:24:00 PM

8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1
USAO Fieldhouse in Chickasha, Okla.

THE MATCHUP
• Oklahoma City University aims to take control of the top spot in the Sooner Athletic Conference with a road win at USAO
• The Stars and No. 24 Texas Wesleyan sit one game back of first place to USAO in the conference standings
• OCU is 2-3 against the Drovers in its last five meetings

ABOUT THE STARS
• Oklahoma City knocked off John Brown (Ark.) 80-66 Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena, winning its fourth game in a row. The Stars (15-5, 8-4 SAC) haven't allowed an opponent to score over 70 points since Jan. 16's 95-85 loss to Central Christian (Kan.)
• Ridell Camidge, a 6-foot-4 senior from Wilmington, N.C., captured his second SAC player of the week honor after posting 23.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.00 blocks and 1.50 steals a game during the week of Jan. 22-28. Camidge puts up 18.7 points per contest and buries 3.21 treys per game, the eighth-highest average in NAIA Division I
• Samuel Williams, a 6-foot-8 senior from Reno, Nev., notched his team-best fifth double-double this season with 18 points and 12 rebounds against John Brown. Williams pulls down 3.26 offensive boards per game, the ninth-best mark in Division I
• Terence Bonhomme, a 6-foot senior from St. Martinville, La., added 12 points in Saturday's win. He averages 16.5 points per contest and has knocked down three 3-pointers in each of his last three games
• Among NAIA Division I, OCU ranks ninth in scoring offense with 91.2 points per game, 15th in offensive rebounds per game with 12.7 and 20th in free throw percentage with a 72.8 percent clip
• The Stars improved to No. 15 in the latest NAIA Division I rankings. Oklahoma City has made 23 NAIA Division I Tournament appearances and won six national championships in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2008
• The Stars have been picked to finish second place in the Sooner Athletic Conference according to the preseason coaches poll. OCU owns 12 SAC regular-season titles and nine SAC Tournament crowns
• OCU leads the all-time series between the two programs 37-20. In the most recent meeting 23rd-rated OCU handed seventh-ranked USAO its first loss of the season, prevailing 92-80 over the Drovers on Dec. 6 at Abe Lemons Arena

ABOUT THE DROVERS
• USAO extended its winning streak to six games after beating Texas Wesleyan 86-83 on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. The Drovers (18-3, 9-3 SAC) had four players finish with double figures in the scoring column and held off a game-tying 3-point attempt from TWU to force overtime as time expired
• Brandon Scott, a 5-11 senior from Dallas, leads USAO in scoring with 20.1 points per game. He knocks down an average of 3.0 triples per contest, the 12th-best mark in NAIA Division I
• Julius Foster, a 6-foot-4 senior from Dallas, supplied the Drovers with 16 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals against Texas Wesleyan. Foster averages 15.2 points, 5.3 boards and 3.5 assists on the season
• Among NAIA Division I, USAO ranks 15th in total rebound margin (plus-6.7), 17th in total rebound defense (33.2) and 23rd in rebounds per game (39.9). The Drovers also hold opponents to 32.3 percent from downtown, the 23rd-best mark in Division I
• The Drovers jumped eight spots to sit at No. 7 in the latest NAIA Division I rankings
• USAO, the defending SAC Tournament champions, were picked to finish fourth in the SAC according to the preseason coaches poll

MEET THE COACHES
Vinay Patel (51-27, third season with OCU)
• Patel collected his second HoopDirt.com coach of the week honor for Dec. 4-10
• Patel has guided two OCU all-Americans, including the Stars' first first-teamer since 2008; the 2017 Sooner Athletic Conference player of the year, the 2017 SAC co-defensive player of the year, a finalist for the Dark Horse Dunker competition, six all-conference performers and three academic all-SAC choices
• 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 the conference player of the year
• Patel spent nine years as assistant before serving as the head coach 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

Chris Francis (44-29, third season with USAO)
• Francis spent a year as an assistant coach at LSU Shreveport, a Red River Athletic Conference school with a reputation for high-quality basketball, before coming to USAO. In the year he was there, the Pilots made an appearance in the semi-finals of the NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship in Kansas City, Mo.
• Francis started his collegiate coaching career as a student assistant at Rogers State University in 2011-12 as the Hillcats made an appearance in the quarterfinals at the NAIA Division I Tournament

ON THE AIR
• Oklahoma City University will carry live and on-demand audio of the contest on OCU's Stretch portal
• Andrew Himes provides the play-by-play. Himes enters his seventh season as the voice of the Stars and has been broadcasting OCU basketball for 10 years starting on color commentary as an OCU student
• USAO provides live and on-demand statistics and video of its contests on its YouTube channel and athletics website

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Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme: G; 6' 0"; Senior

#23 Samuel Williams: F; 6' 8"; Senior

#3 Ridell Camidge: F; 6' 4"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme
: 6' 0"; Senior
: G

#23 Samuel Williams
: 6' 8"; Senior
: F

#3 Ridell Camidge
: 6' 4"; Senior
: F

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme

#23 Samuel Williams

#3 Ridell Camidge

Players Mentioned

#5 Terence Bonhomme

#23 Samuel Williams

#3 Ridell Camidge