2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21
Eagles Nest | Oklahoma City
THE MATCHUP
• Oklahoma City University takes on a top 25-ranked women's basketball squad for the second consecutive time in a clash with Science & Arts at the Eagles Nest on the campus of Oklahoma Christian
• After Abe Lemons Arena suffered major damage to the court, the remainder of OCU's home schedule will be played at multiple sites. Oklahoma City's games Saturday and Jan. 26 will be at Oklahoma Christian University
• The Stars return to the Eagles Nest for the first time since Dec. 31, 2011, when OCU routed Oklahoma Christian 88-59 in a conference clash. Oklahoma City rolled to a 103-44 romp Jan 26, 2012 in the last matchup with Oklahoma Christian. In 2011-12, OCU captured its sixth national championship 69-48 over Union (Tenn.) on March 20, 2012
• Admission will be free of charge
ABOUT THE STARS
• Texas Wesleyan dealt the Stars a 96-75 setback Thursday night in Fort Worth, Texas. OCU (8-9, 5-7 SAC) fell against 17th-ranked Texas Wesleyan in its first matchup with a rated team this season
• Annilia Dawn, a 5-foot-5 senior psychology major from Amarillo, Texas, totaled 16 points and five assists. She downed 4 out of 9 3-point attempts. Dawn has put together 13.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in 2022-23
• Elaine Witt, a 5-5 sophomore nursing major from Dale, Okla., posted 14 points and four rebounds. She came up with her third double-figure scoring performance of the season, first since Nov. 21 and first in league play of 2022-23. Witt has supplied Oklahoma City with 7.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists a game this season
• The Stars took the seventh spot in the preseason Sooner Athletic Conference coaches poll. Oklahoma City has seized 20 SAC regular-season championships and 12 SAC Tournament titles. Oklahoma City owns 26 appearances in the NAIA Division I Championship Tournament with nine national championships won in 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017 with four national runner-up finishes (2003, 2004, 2005, 2019)
• Oklahoma City has a 59-7 advantage in the overall series. Science & Arts came out on top 77-72 on Nov. 19, 2022 in Chickasha, Okla. Witt turned in her career high with 19 points, connecting on all eight of her field-goal attempts
ABOUT THE DROVERS
• Science & Arts delivered the crucial points in a 68-63 win over John Brown (Ark.) on Thursday in Chickasha, Okla. Diaka Berete kept the 19th-ranked Drovers (17-2, 11-2 SAC) in front with a 3-pointer with 1:59 left and a free throw with 36 seconds to go after Maci Mains' trey sliced the Science & Arts lead to 58-57 at the 4:25 mark
• Brayanna Polk, a 5-8 sophomore, had 20 points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals. Polk scored her season high. She averages 7.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.00 steals a game this season
• The Drovers average 11.89 steals a game to rank 23rd in the NAIA on the season
• The preseason SAC coaches poll had Science & Arts finishing fourth in the conference
MEET THE COACHES
Kris Seigenthaler (first year at OCU)
• Kris Seigenthaler assumed the OCU head-coaching job after spending the last four years at Loyola (La.) as an assistant coach. Loyola made four national-tournament appearances with four 20-win seasons and twice sweeping the Southern States Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles
• Seigenthaler has had coaching stops as an assistant at Auburn University at Montgomery (Ala.), Faulkner (Ala.) and Shorter (Ga.). While at Auburn Montgomery, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association included Seigenthaler among its rising stars in the coaching profession on the Thirty Under 30 list.
• Seigenthaler began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Shorter following a playing career at the University of Montevallo (Ala.)
Darrick Matthews (141-80, eighth season with Science & Arts)
• Matthews guided the Drovers to three consecutive 20-win seasons from 2017-20, including a 29-6 mark with their first SAC regular-season title, splitting the conference crown with OCU in 2017-18. He took the 2018 John Hudson SAC coach of the year
• Overall head-coaching record stands at 169-99 including one season at Southwestern Christian, where he led the Lady Eagles to a fourth-place finish in the 2015 National Christian College Athletic Association Division I Tournament
• Began his college playing career at Oklahoma Christian, then transferred to the University of the Southwest (N.M.), where he became an all-conference performer playing for Quinn Wooldridge, who would eventually become an OCU assistant. Matthews completed his college career at McMurry (Texas)
ON THE AIR
• Oklahoma City University athletics provides live and on-demand audio and video of its contests on OCU's BlueFrame platform. Cost to watch OCU athletics live is $4.99 per game, while there is a women's basketball season pass available for $44
• Andrew Himes will perform the play-by-play. Himes enters his 12th season as the voice of the Stars and has been broadcasting OCU basketball for 15 years starting on color commentary as an OCU student
• OCU has partnered with BlueFrame Technology to create the OCU Sports Network. To watch live video, fans can find the Stars' BlueFrame platform over the web on the SAC Network along with streaming apps for mobile devices (iOS and Android) and televisions including Amazon Fire Tablet, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and Roku. The app can be found and installed by searching for the SAC Network
