Women's Basketball 11/22/2019 4:30:00 PM

OCU vs. Wayland Baptist women's basketball preview

Stars face Wayland Baptist in clash of teams ranked in top five of NAIA women's basketball

2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22
Abe Lemons Arena inside the Freede Center

THE MATCHUP
• Oklahoma City University squares off with Wayland Baptist (Texas) in a blockbuster matchup in NAIA women's basketball
• The contest matches third-ranked OCU and fifth-ranked Wayland Baptist, the preseason favorites to win the Sooner Athletic Conference
• Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for students, and OCU students, faculty and staff get into all regular-season OCU home athletics events free with their ID
• When the Stars score 70 points, fans get a 2-for-1 combo coupon for Raising Cane's

ABOUT THE STARS
• Oklahoma City bounced Panhandle State 75-57 on Thursday night at Abe Lemons Arena. The Stars (5-0, 1-0 SAC) opened conference play with a victory for the 10th consecutive year
• Taylor Sylvester, a 6-foot-5 senior from Chickasha, Okla., turned in a career-best 20 points with six rebounds and three blocked shots. She sank 9 of her 14 shots from the field. Sylvester averages 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.00 blocks per contest while hitting 65.6 percent from the floor
• Brennyn Seagler, a 5-11 senior from Gruver, Texas, equaled her career high with 17 points while notching 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals. Seagler recorded her second career double-double for the Stars. Seagler produces 11.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.80 steals a game
• OCU leads the NAIA with 23.8 assists a game while ranking second in defensive field-goal percentage (28.7 percent), defensive rebounds a game (35.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.78-to-1). Mallory Lockhart paces the country with 25 3-pointers and 5.0 3s a game, while Sylvester ranks fifth in average blocks. To see how the Stars rate among NAIA Division I statistically, click here
• Oklahoma City opens the season at No. 3 in the NAIA Division I rankings. OCU continued the NAIA's longest streak of top-25 appearances with its 254th consecutive national ranking dating back to 1997-98. OCU has made 25 trips, including 22 consecutive appearances, to the NAIA Division I Tournament and captured nine national championships in 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017
• The Stars tied for first in the SAC preseason coaches poll. Oklahoma City took its 19th SAC regular-season championship last season. OCU has won or shared nine of the last 10 league titles, going 221-22 (.909 winning percentage) within SAC play since 2007-08
• Wayland Baptist captured its third SAC Tournament championship with a 68-62 win over the Stars on March 2 at Abe Lemons Arena. Abby Selzer delivered 26 points with 9-for-13 shooting from the floor. OCU leads the all-time series between the two programs 39-28

ABOUT THE FLYING QUEENS
• Wayland Baptist stomped Southwestern Christian 73-50 on Thursday night in Bethany, Okla. The Flying Queens (4-1, 1-0 SAC) held Southwestern Christian to 27 percent shooting from the field to pull away in the third quarter and improve to 3-1 on the road this season
• Cailyn Breckel, a 5-9 sophomore, had 12 points and knocked down 5 of her 6 shots from the field. Breckel records 6.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.20 steals a game
• The Flying Queens lead NAIA Division I with an 85.4 percent free-throw percentage
• Wayland Baptist and OCU were tied atop the SAC preseason coaches poll

MEET THE COACHES
Bo Overton (120-22, fifth season with OCU)
• Led Stars to a 33-5 season with the SAC regular-season crown and an NAIA DI tournament championship trip in 2018-19
• Overton has coached four all-Americans while at OCU, including Daniela Wallen, the 2017 NAIA DI player of the year, and Daniela Galindo, the 2018 WBCA NAIA player of the year
• Overton served as an assistant coach for the Chinese national team in the 2012 Olympic games
• From 1998-2004, Overton served as an assistant for Oklahoma. The Sooners made five NCAA Tournament appearances during that time, with a 2002 NCAA runner-up finish and Final Four berth. He also earned three Big 12 regular-season titles and two conference tournament championships throughout his six years
• He has an overall record coaching college women of 142-69 in seven years as a head coach

Alesha Ellis (149-50, seventh season with WBU)
• Wayland Baptist handed Ellis her 100th career win as head coach in a 65-39 win over Panhandle State on Jan. 15, 2018
• Ellis has led Wayland Baptist to five consecutive appearances in the NAIA Division I Championship Tournament. The Flying Queens advanced to the 2018 Fab Four for their first appearance in the national semifinals since 1992
• Ellis 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

ON THE AIR
• Oklahoma City University athletics provides live and on-demand audio, stats and video of its contests on OCU's Stretch portal. Cost to watch the game is $7.95 per game, $29.95 for a women's basketball season pass and $79.95 for an all-season pass in 2019-20
• Andrew Himes provides the play-by-play. Himes enters his ninth season as the voice of the Stars and has been broadcasting OCU basketball for 12 years starting on color commentary as an OCU student
• Fans can access regular-season broadcasts from NAIA institutions as well as from NAIA Championships postseason contests via Stretch Internet through custom apps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Users can search for "NAIA" on the app interfaces on any compatible device, and then download the free NAIA Network app

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