LUBBOCK, Texas (December 18, 2014) – Lubbock Christian cruised to a 73-55 victory over Texas A&M International in the teams' Heartland Conference opener behind a game-high 14 points from both A.J. Luckey and Ridrell Holman, along with a career-high dozen points from Marcos Schuster Thursday night at the Rip Griffin Center.
 
The Chaps (4-3, 1-0 Heartland), picked to finish sixth in the conference preseason poll, only trailed the Dustdevils (5-4, 0-1 Heartland), predicted as a third-place finisher, for 25 seconds at the start of the contest and led by as many as 29 early into the second half. LCU was quite efficient from the floor, connecting on the majority of their field goals (23-of-44), hitting half of their shots from behind the arc (8-of-16) and nailing 19-of-21 from the free throw line.
 
Not only did the Chaps shoot the ball well, but the team also was solid defensively, holding TAMIU to 36-percent shooting and keeping Dustdevil leading scorer Patrick Carlson to 10 points below his season average of 17.
 
LCU displayed energy and confidence from the moment the ball was tipped with Marcus Arrington setting the tone with a hard drive for the first points of the evening. The Dustdevils responded with a three-pointer from David Horst, but that lead would quickly disappear after a steal and layup by Schuster to give the Chaps a lead they would never again relinquish.
 
Arrington hit a three and then went coast-to-coast to put the Chaps up 9-3 five minutes into the game. TAMIU twice cut the lead to six within the next four minutes, but LCU went on a scoring frenzy, outscoring the Dustdevils 19-2 over the next four-and-a-half minutes. During that span, Beau Durham collected three of his career-high 10 rebounds and scored four points, and Luckey registered seven consecutive Chap points to push LCU's lead to 23 with 6:37 remaining before the break.
 
Perhaps the most emphatic play of the game came at the 2:33 mark when Schuster chased down TAMIU's Marcus Hall on a breakaway layup and pinned Hall's shot against the backboard. Durham chased down the rejected attempt, passed out to Arrington who found Holman in the corner for a three-pointer he hit while falling down that forced TAMIU to call a timeout.
 
Another steal and layup by Schuster and a three-point play by Holman put LCU out in front, 43-17, before Matt Alford made two free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt as the shot clock expired to put the Chaps up 45-20 at the break.
 
The second half was comprised of more LCU highlights, including a pair of three-pointers from John Lewis, his first since joining the squad, which extended the Chap advantage to 67-40 with just over six minutes left to play. The Dustdevils then strung together a 7-0 run, but the damage had already been done, giving LCU a 1-0 start in league play.
 
For TAMIU, Montrice McKnight scored 13 points, and Vadal Faniel had 11.
 
The Chaps continue conference play on Saturday at home by hosting St. Mary's at 3 p.m.