LUBBOCK, Texas (January 17, 2015) – Marcos Schuster scored 10 points within the final three minutes on his way to a career-high 19 points, and A.J. Luckey scored a game-high 20 to guide Lubbock Christian to a 71-63 win over Arkansas-Fort Smith Saturday afternoon at the Rip Griffin Center to end a two-game conference losing streak.

The game was a tale of two halves, with Luckey heading the offense with 15 of the Chaps (8-6, 5-2 Heartland) 28 points during the first 20 minutes while Schuster contributed 17 after the break, leading LCU to outscore the Lions (8-8, 4-4 Heartland), the league's preseason number one pick, 43 to 26 following intermission. Isaac Cardona was a force on the glass, posting a career-high 16 rebounds and falling one point short of his first career double-double. In addition to the Chaps production, LCU held the Heartland Conference's third leading scorer, Seth Youngblood, to zero field goals with his only four points coming from the free throw line.

Trailing UAFS 37-28 at half, the Chaps opened with a 13-0 run and did not allow the Lions to add to the scoreboard until nearly six minutes in when Dusan Stojanovic hit two free throws. Fort Smith did not score a field goal until 13:28 left in the second half to knot the game at 41-all.

Two free throws by Matthew Alford put the Chaps up 46-45 with 9:29 to play and another score by Alford on a baseline jumper pushed LCU in front, 48-45. A strong offensive board and putback by Cardona two minutes later extended the Chap lead to 50-45.

The Lions' Blake Branham drained a three pointer and two free throws to give UAFS up 53-52 with 4:22 on the clock. Luckey then netted two free throws to put LCU up 54-53 prior to eight LCU points, all by Schuster to give the Chaps a 62-57 edge with 1:40 to play. A layup by Marcus Arrington extended the lead to seven, and an additional seven consecutive free throws by Alford, Schuster and Luckey put LCU up by double digits to snap a two-game losing streak.

For UAFS, Branham and Josh Harmon had a team-high 13 points.

The Chaps travel to Oklahoma Panhandle State on Monday at 7:30 p.m. for a makeup game that was originally slated for January 1 but was postponed due to weather conditions.