KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Oklahoma City is one win away from capturing its second straight NAIA basketball championship.
The defending champion Stars (30-7), with Ollie Bailey scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, ousted unseeded Campbellsville, Ky., 78-64 in the semifinals of the NAIA tournament Monday night and will meet Mountain State on Tuesday for the title.
Oklahoma City is the first team to advance to three straight finals since Kentucky State did it in 1970-72.
No. 5 seed Mountain State of Beckley, W. Va., (34-2) beat top-seeded and previously unbeaten Georgetown, Ky., 78-65 in the other semifinal.
Kameron Gray, the MVP of last year’s NAIA tourney, had 17 points for the No. 7 seed Stars, who lost at Campbellsville 76-57 on Nov. 24 but were never seriously threatened Monday in the rematch in the national tournament.
The 6-foot-7 Bailey, who was not with the Stars last year when they went 35-2 and beat Concordia University of California in the title game, spent most of the night mixing it up inside with 6-7 Nestor Colmenares and 6-7 Hristo Petkov, who fouled out trying to wrestle a rebound away from Bailey in the final minutes.
A member of the Big East all-rookie team while at Rutgers, Bailey averaged more than 20 points in every tournament game for the Stars, who will be trying to extend their NAIA record with a sixth championships. In the 2006 championship game, the Stars lost to Texas Wesleyan on a last-second shot.
Merely making it to their first NAIA semifinal was a feat for the Tigers (26-10), who lost star forward Zach Allender for the year with a knee injury and saw starting center Kyle Martin go out with an injured hand in their conference tournament.
Ronald Taylor had 16 points and Richard Jackson added 12 for Oklahoma City, which hit 20-of-25 free throws and held Campbellsville to 8-for-31 from behind the 3-point arc.
Bubba Long had 21 points for Campbellsville and Colmenares had 13 points and eight rebounds.
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