LUBBOCK, Texas (December 20, 2014) – Two free throws by A.J. Luckey with 14 seconds remaining doubled Lubbock Christian's lead to four versus St. Mary's and allowed the Chaps to escape with a 64-62 victory Saturday afternoon at the Rip Griffin Center after a long distance attempt by the Rattlers fell short at the buzzer, leaving LCU and No. 25 St. Edward's as the only unbeaten teams in Heartland Conference play.

Luckey scored a game-high 21 points that included a 9-for-12 performance at the line while Matthew Alford recorded a dozen. In the narrow victory, the Chaps (5-3, 2-0 Heartland) committed a season-high 18 turnovers and gave up 11 offensive boards to the Rattlers (4-5, 1-1 Heartland) but hit 18-of-23 free throws in the second half.

Alford hit one of two free throws to give the Chaps a 61-55 lead with 1:12 left on the clock before St. Mary's Marvin Whitt drove through the lane to hit a bucket and draw a foul, but missed the free throw, whittling the advantage to four with 1:01 remaining in the game. LCU then struggled in the backcourt, being called for three consecutive turnovers, with one miscue resulting in a Rattler field goal to trim the lead to a pair. On the ensuing inbounds, Alford struggled containing the ball, throwing a heave down court to Ridrell Holman as the Chaps called a timeout. St. Mary's pushed the officials to review the clock for a 10-second backcourt violation, but after several minutes it was determined that LCU still retained possession.

Luckey then connected on his two free throws, but St. Mary's Isaiah Matthews grabbed an offensive board and scored on the putback while drawing a foul. His successful charity shot pulled the Rattlers to within a point and five ticks on the clock. On the inbounds, Durham was fouled while in the double bonus and hit the front end, giving the Rattlers a final attempt that ended up falling short.

After leading 29-22 at the half, LCU held St. Mary's without a field goal for nearly five minutes after the break and seemed to be in decent shape following a trio of free throws by Luckey to put the Chaps up 39-25 with just over 15 minutes left to play, but the Rattlers went on a 10-2 run within the next three minutes to slice to lead to six at the 12:19 mark. Marcos Schuster gave the Chaps a nine-point lead on a baseline drive with 3:42 to go before the Rattlers responded with six straight points to cut the lead to 58-55 leading into the frantic finish.

For St. Mary's, Marvin Binney totaled 13 points, and Kriston Minor and Whitt each had 10.

The Chaps return following the holiday break with a trip to Oklahoma Panhandle State on New Year's Day at 7 p.m.