Arkansas-Fort Smith (8-7, 4-3 Heartland) at Lubbock Christian (7-6, 4-2 Heartland)
Saturday, January 17 at 3 p.m.
Lubbock, Texas (Rip Griffin Center)

About Arkansas-Fort Smith
The Lions had a rough start to the season, going 0-3 until securing a pair of non-conference wins. UAFS recorded their first league win in a 92-88 overtime win at Dallas Baptist before dropping contests against St. Mary's and Texas A&M International. Since beginning conference play 1-4, the Lions have secured three straight wins.
 
History between Chaps and Lions
Last season's battle was the first between the two squads with LCU taking an 85-82 victory at The Rip.
 
Last meeting between LCU and UAFS
LUBBOCK, Texas (February 1, 2014) – Lubbock Christian took down second-place University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, 85-82, in which Tyler Rogers tied a career-high with 21 points, Anthony Brancato tallied 16, Isaac Cardona recorded 14 and Jeremy Ford added a dozen on Saturday afternoon at The Rip Griffin Center to complete a weekend sweep for the Chaps, winners in five of their last six contests.
Double-double machine Eli Baker was held to nine points and seven rebounds on 4-of-15 shooting, but his teammates picked up the slack, shooting 51 percent from the field, dishing out 18 assists and committing a season-low seven turnovers.
With 1:09 remaining in the contest, the Chaps (11-6, 6-5 Heartland) sent the Lions' 45 percent free throw shooter, Miha Glavas, to the charity stripe for two shots. After two misses, head coach Todd Duncan called a timeout with 47 ticks left on the clock, setting up Brancato for a baseline drive where he drew a foul and hit both free throws for an 82-77 Chap lead. A blocking foul was called on Cardona on the other end, sending Seth Youngblood to the line, where he hit both freebies to cut LCU's to 82-79 with 29 seconds to play.
A Cardona free throw seconds later gave the Chaps a four-point cushion, and Baker stifled a shot by Lion Alex Cooper, sending it into stands for perhaps Baker's biggest play of the night. After a timeout, sharpshooter Youngblood, who had connected on six threes in the game, went up for a triple and Brancato was unable to avoid him after his release, forcing the official to whistle a foul. Youngblood sank all three to close the gap to 83-82 with seven seconds remaining. Rogers was fouled in the backcourt and hit both free throws, giving the Lions (15-4, 8-3 Heartland) one final attempt to tie the game, but Jake Toupal's shot was off the mark, giving the Chaps the victory.
Ford drained four three-pointers in the game, with his second make coming at 15:37 in the first half to put the Chaps up 14-11. A three by A.J. Luckey from the left side extended LCU's lead to 28-22, but the Lions quickly took the lead on a score in the paint by Bo Franklin, a jumper by Toupal and Youngblood's fifth three of the half.
The Chaps pulled to within 34-32 on a jumper by Beau Durham, but the Lions pieced together five points in a sole possession on Alex Cooper's three-pointer. Cooper was fouled on the shot, and Franklin was there to put in the missed free throw for a 39-32 Lion lead at the 3:41 mark. Glavas then went off for another five straight points for UAFS, increasing the lead to 44-34. Two jumpers and two free throws by Rogers along with a three-point play by Brancato sliced the Lions' lead to 47-43. A steal by Ford with seven seconds left led to a score by Baker to trim the Chap deficit to 47-45 before the half.
A touch pass in the lane from Cardona to Baker gave LCU its first lead of the second half at 56-55 with 15:50 left to play. An offensive board by Cardona led to his own three-pointer from the right baseline and a 65-60 LCU lead with 11:44 on the clock. Cardona found his comfort zone again from the right baseline, hitting two more jumpers within less than a minute to extend LCU's lead to 77-68. Six free throws by UAFS cut the lead to 79-74, and a jumper by Franklin with 2:53 remaining would end up being the final field goal for either team.
Youngblood scored a game-high 28 points, Franklin tallied 12, Glavas contributed 11 and Toupal added 10.
 
Chaps succumb to Hillcats, 72-61
LUBBOCK, Texas (January 15, 2014) – Lubbock Christian lost a consecutive Heartland Conference contest of the season, dropping a 72-61 decision to Rogers State on Thursday evening at the Rip Griffin Center while struggling from the field and allowing the Hillcats to hit half of their field goal attempts.
The Chaps (7-6, 4-2 Heartland) loss to RSU (9-6, 3-4 Heartland) comes after Saturday's setback to Oklahoma Christian, marking only the second time LCU has posted back-to-back conference defeats, with the last pair being recorded during the 2013-14 season, also within the month of January.
LCU was held to 38-percent (20-of-53) shooting from the floor, including a 3-of-12 night by A.J. Luckey, the team's leading scorer. However, the Hillcats netted 25-of-50 of their attempts with Frederico Santos posting 18 points and J.C. Hartzler adding 16.
Down 37-33 at the half, the Chaps quickly found themselves down by another three on a triple by Hartzler on the first play after the break, but Marcos Schuster then nullified the addition with a three of his own. The teams traded buckets until a three-pointer by Luckey cut the deficit to 44-43 with 16:30 remaining.
A three-point play by Matthew Alford knotted the score at 46-all, and a bucket by Isaac Cardona gave the Chaps their first lead of the game at 48-46 with 13:45 to go. The Hillcats then scored on their next four possessions while LCU failed to add to their total, putting RSU ahead 56-48 with under 11 minutes to play.
A layup by Santos stretched RSU's lead to double digits following a media timeout, but successive three-pointers by Luckey and John Lewis spearheaded a 9-2 LCU run allowing the Chaps to pull within 60-57 and 7:28 to play. Santos went to work again by grabbing one of his game-high 16 rebounds and laying it back in on the offensive end while teammate DesJuan Newton hit a bucket in the paint before Santos added another pair of points at the free throw line for a 66-57 lead with just over five minutes on the clock.
With two minutes left to go, Ridrell Holman made one-of-two at the line to cut the Hillcat lead to 66-61, and Schuster secured a steal on the other end, but the Chaps were unable to capitalize and were forced to foul. The Hillcats went 6-of-8 from the line in the final 69 seconds to seal the victory.
For LCU, Alford posted a team-high 14 points and nine boards, while Schuster recorded 11 and Cardona tallied 10.