MBB: Cards hit Road to face SELA

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BEAUMONT,  Texas – After putting an end to their small three-game slide in thrilling fashion Saturday evening, the Lamar University men’s basketball team (10-7/2-3 Southland) will look to carry that momentum into Monday’s game at Southeastern Louisiana. Currently seventh in the Southland Conference standings, the Cardinals will face their second-straight opponent looking for its first league win of the season.

The Lions are 2-15 (.118) overall and have started conference play by dropping four consecutive games. SLU has dropped nine straight dating back to a Dec. 1^st win over Loyola (New Orleans). Although the Lions have struggled during the early part of the season, both of their wins have come at home and SLU has won each of the past two games played in Hammond against the Cardinals.

Southeastern has had its struggles this season scoring currently ranked 12^th in the league averaging less than 69 points per game. The Lions have hit the 70-point mark only four times this season, but have been involved in consecutive heartbreaking losses heading into Monday’s showdown. SLU dropped a seven-point decision at Sam Houston State a week ago and followed that up with a four-point setback to Incarnate Word Saturday. Senior guard Zay Jackson leads SLU averaging nearly 14 points per game.

Freshman Nick Garth (14.8 ppg) continues to lead an LU offense ranked second in the league in scoring (79.1 ppg), and Garth hasn’t had to do it all by himself. Senior Dontavious Sears has become a double-double machine for the Cardinals over the course of the team’s past four games averaging 13.5 points and 11.8 rebounds during that stretch.

An area of concern for LU head coach Tic Price lately has been the number of turnovers committed by the Cardinals, which has led to points on the other end of the floor. Although the Cardinals minimized the impact of their turnovers in Saturday’s win over Northwestern State, the turnovers have hurt as Big Red has fallen from second in the league in scoring defense down to eighth in the previous four games.

The game against the Lions is slated to tip off at 7 p.m. from the University Center in Hammond, La. It can be heard live on Newstalk 560 KLVI with Harold Mann calling the action.

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