Women's Basketball 3/17/2019 12:37:00 AM

OCU vs. Our Lady of the Lake women's basketball preview

Oklahoma City owns 12 national championship game appearances

NAIA Division I Tournament Fab Four
9 p.m. CDT Monday, March 18
Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark in Billings, Mont.

THE MATCHUP
• Oklahoma City University collides with Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) with a berth in the national championship game on the line
• Oklahoma City looks to advance to the national title game for the 13th time
• The Stars made the NAIA Fab Four for the 15th time in 25 national-tournament appearances
• OCU owns a 74-15 mark in NAIA Tournament play for the best all-time record in the tournament

ABOUT THE STARS
• The Stars gutted out a 76-72 win over Clarke (Iowa) on Saturday in the tournament quarterfinals. OCU (32-4) owned a 48-14 advantage in points off the bench. The Stars have won their tournament games by an average margin of three points, while OCU's average margin of victory this season is 25.2 points per game
• Abby Selzer, a 6-foot-2 freshman from Thomas, Okla., powered the Stars with 26 points, which equaled her season high, with a 10-for-14 shooting performance from the floor. Selzer supplies OCU with 17.2 points and 6.8 rebounds a game while her 65 percent field-goal percentage leads the NAIA. During the tournament, she is averaging 16.3 points and 6.0 rebounds a game. Selzer has collected first-team Women's Basketball Coaches Association all-American acclaim, first-team all-Sooner Athletic Conference, SAC freshman of the year and all-tournament in the SAC Tournament
• Brennyn Seagler, a 5-11 junior from Gruver, Texas, picked up 16 points and five rebounds. She has scored in double figures two out of the past three games. Seagler puts together 7.5 points and 5.9 rebounds a game during the season. She has increased her output to 10.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest during the tournament
• The Stars have harassed teams into the lowest defensive field-goal percentage in NAIA Division I at 29.5 percent. Mallory Lockhart, a 5-7 freshman, rates third nationally with 104 3-pointers made this season. To see how OCU ranks with the rest of the NAIA statistically, click here
• Oklahoma City went to 10th in the most recent NAIA Division I rankings. Oklahoma City extended the NAIA's longest streak of top-25 appearances to 253 consecutive rankings dating back to 1997-98. The Stars reached the NAIA Tournament for the 22nd consecutive year and for the 25th time overall. OCU has captured nine national championships in 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017
• Our Lady of the Lake dealt the Stars an 89-81 setback Nov. 17 at Abe Lemons Arena in the Oklahoma City Classic. Lockhart led OCU with 18 points. The Saints snapped OCU's eight-game home winning streak. The Stars have a 4-3 lead in the all-time series

ABOUT THE SAINTS
• Our Lady of the Lake held off Campbellsville (Ky.) 94-88 on Saturday at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark. The Saints (28-6) secured their first appearance in the NAIA Tournament semifinals
• Patience Opke, a 5-8 junior, had 22 points and six assists. She averages 10.6 points, 4.1 assists and 2.15 per game
• Kasey Saldana, a 5-3 junior, chipped in 21 points to bring her career scoring total to 1,019. Saldana had 33 points Nov. 17 against the Stars. She leads Our Lady of the Lake with 14.9 points a game
• The Saints had season bests by an OCU opponent this season in scoring, 3-point percentage (46.2 percent) and 3-pointers (12) on Nov. 17
• Our Lady of the Lake, ranked 12th in the NAIA, leads NAIA Division I with 91.8 points a game

MEET THE COACHES
Bo Overton (114-21, fourth season with OCU)
• Garnered his second John Hudson Sooner Athletic Conference coach of the year award in three years after leading Oklahoma City to its 19th SAC regular-season title. He earned the NAIA coach of the year after leading OCU to the 2017 national title
• Overton has coached four all-Americans while at OCU, including Daniela Wallen, the 2017 NAIA Division I 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 Olympics
• From 1998-2004, he served as assistant for Oklahoma. During that time, the Sooners made five NCAA Tournament trips with the 2002 NCAA runner-up finish and Final Four berth with three Big 12 regular-season titles and two conference tournament crowns
• He has an overall record coaching college women of 136-68, notching his 100th career win in a 78-53 victory at Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) on Feb. 23, 2018

Christopher Minner (189-44, seventh season with Our Lady of the Lake)
• Guided Our Lady of the Lake to both the Red River Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships this season
• Has taken the Saints to their eighth NAIA Tournament appearance
• Owns 121-11 league record

ON THE AIR
• The NAIA provides live stats and video of the tournament games
• 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

Print Friendly Version