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Oklahoma City Univer-
sity's collection of cham- pionship banners grew by
one last Tuesday.
The women's basket-
ball team captured its
fourth NAIA Division I
championship in six sea- sons and first under coach Bo Overton with a 73-66 win over Lewis-Clark State in Billings, Mont.
"What we've done in the last year was not easy," Overton said. "But I think what happens, and what makes this place special, is we walk around every day to practice, to the office, to class and there's about 6o-some-
banners of national thing
champions hanging in our gym from all of our pro- grams."
The OCU women's program has won nine national titles. The school will hold a celebration at noon Monday in the caf- eteria inside the Tom &
Brenda McDaniel Univer-
sity Center.
"As we got to be a pretty good team, we started talking about let's get one of these for ourselves," Overton said.
Void of any players from its 2014 and 2015 national championship teams, Oklahoma City's latest crown comes less than two years since Overton replaced current San Antonio Stars assis- tant Latricia Trammell as head coach.
Athletic director Jim Abbott was certain Over- ton, a former OU assis- tant under Sherri Coale and WNBA head coach, was fit to take the reins. Abbott just didn't expect another title so soon.
"No, I didn't hire him with some great confi- dence that he was going to take us to a champion- ship so fast," Abbott said. "I hired him because I knew that, one, he would buy into the culture of our athletic depart-
ment. Two, he was going
to pour his heart into it. And that's really what it takes."
Overton built a chain- pionship roster mostly from scratch. He relied on the school's academic prestige and athletic tra- dition as recruiting tools.
He landed this season's
NAIA Player of the Year,
Daniela Wallen, who was a 2015 transfer from Northwest Florida State.
The senior from Cara-
cas, Venezuela, led the
NAIA in scoring, aver-
aging 24.6 points per game. She became the third OCU women's bas- ketball player to earn the National Player of the Year honor and first since 2004.
"What's phenomenal about her is she scores 25 points a game without you ever thinking that she is selfish," Abbott said.
"She'd be the first to tell you she's surrounded by teammates that made her better. She is a special player."
Local talents such as Shattuck's Daniela Gallindo, Mustang's Brooke Irwin and Putnam City graduate NaShyla Hammons helped provide depth as newcomers this
season.
The Stars also relied on Mariana Duran, Leah Cheney and Janae Haag, who all transferred into OCU at the same time as Wallen.
OCU's turning point this season was a six- point loss to Wayland Baptist on Jan. 16.
"I thought (that loss)
propelled us for the run we made to finish things out," Overton said.
"Because it showed you
cannot just walk on this
court, because you have
OCU on your jersey, you win."
A refocused OCU team stormed past St. Gregory's 106-41 in its next game, beginning the contest on a 32-o run. Oklahoma City didn't lose another game the rest of the season, finishing with a 34-2 record.
As Wallen received an inbound pass with six seconds remaining in Tuesday's national championship game, she ran the clock out, threw the ball high to the rafters and the Stars' bench cleared to begin the celebration.
In that moment, Overton thought to himself, "What am I going to do without Daniella Wallen
next year? What are we
going to do without Janae Haag? What are we going to do without Mariana Duran?"
"It just kind-of made it real you have a lot of work to do now," Overton said. "This is so fun and I want to do it again, but we have some work to do.
sity's collection of cham- pionship banners grew by
one last Tuesday.
The women's basket-
ball team captured its
fourth NAIA Division I
championship in six sea- sons and first under coach Bo Overton with a 73-66 win over Lewis-Clark State in Billings, Mont.
"What we've done in the last year was not easy," Overton said. "But I think what happens, and what makes this place special, is we walk around every day to practice, to the office, to class and there's about 6o-some-
banners of national thing
champions hanging in our gym from all of our pro- grams."
The OCU women's program has won nine national titles. The school will hold a celebration at noon Monday in the caf- eteria inside the Tom &
Brenda McDaniel Univer-
sity Center.
"As we got to be a pretty good team, we started talking about let's get one of these for ourselves," Overton said.
Void of any players from its 2014 and 2015 national championship teams, Oklahoma City's latest crown comes less than two years since Overton replaced current San Antonio Stars assis- tant Latricia Trammell as head coach.
Athletic director Jim Abbott was certain Over- ton, a former OU assis- tant under Sherri Coale and WNBA head coach, was fit to take the reins. Abbott just didn't expect another title so soon.
"No, I didn't hire him with some great confi- dence that he was going to take us to a champion- ship so fast," Abbott said. "I hired him because I knew that, one, he would buy into the culture of our athletic depart-
ment. Two, he was going
to pour his heart into it. And that's really what it takes."
Overton built a chain- pionship roster mostly from scratch. He relied on the school's academic prestige and athletic tra- dition as recruiting tools.
He landed this season's
NAIA Player of the Year,
Daniela Wallen, who was a 2015 transfer from Northwest Florida State.
The senior from Cara-
cas, Venezuela, led the
NAIA in scoring, aver-
aging 24.6 points per game. She became the third OCU women's bas- ketball player to earn the National Player of the Year honor and first since 2004.
"What's phenomenal about her is she scores 25 points a game without you ever thinking that she is selfish," Abbott said.
"She'd be the first to tell you she's surrounded by teammates that made her better. She is a special player."
Local talents such as Shattuck's Daniela Gallindo, Mustang's Brooke Irwin and Putnam City graduate NaShyla Hammons helped provide depth as newcomers this
season.
The Stars also relied on Mariana Duran, Leah Cheney and Janae Haag, who all transferred into OCU at the same time as Wallen.
OCU's turning point this season was a six- point loss to Wayland Baptist on Jan. 16.
"I thought (that loss)
propelled us for the run we made to finish things out," Overton said.
"Because it showed you
cannot just walk on this
court, because you have
OCU on your jersey, you win."
A refocused OCU team stormed past St. Gregory's 106-41 in its next game, beginning the contest on a 32-o run. Oklahoma City didn't lose another game the rest of the season, finishing with a 34-2 record.
As Wallen received an inbound pass with six seconds remaining in Tuesday's national championship game, she ran the clock out, threw the ball high to the rafters and the Stars' bench cleared to begin the celebration.
In that moment, Overton thought to himself, "What am I going to do without Daniella Wallen
next year? What are we
going to do without Janae Haag? What are we going to do without Mariana Duran?"
"It just kind-of made it real you have a lot of work to do now," Overton said. "This is so fun and I want to do it again, but we have some work to do.
