LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (11-5, 5-1) at OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE STATE (2-14, 0-6)Monday, January 19 - 5:30 PM
Oscar Williams Field House (Goodwell, Okla.)
Radio: KJTV AM950/100.7FM
All-Time Series: OPSU leads 21-20
POSTPONED ROAD TRIP
Lubbock Christian University was originally scheduled to hit the road Jan. 3 for a Heartland Conference contest on the road at Goodwell, Okla. against Oklahoma Panhandle State, but inclement weather changed that game to Monday Jan. 19. LCU will now play that contest to begin a three-game road trip, which will serve as their longest road trip of the season. The Lady Chaps begin the trip leading the Heart-land Conference with a 5-1 conference record. They also look for a season-long four-game win streak to improve their 11-5 overall record.
LOOKING BACK AT THE LAST GAME
Four Lady Chaparrals scored at least 14 points, including a team-leading 17 points from
Tess Bruffey, a double-double from
Haley Burton (14-points, 12-assists) and a career-high 15 points from
Blair Taylor, and the balanced production helped Lubbock Christian University to a 75-63 Heartland Conference win over University of Arkansas Fort Smith to move atop the conference standings Saturday afternoon at Rip Griffin Center.
The opening five minutes featured five lead changes, but then LCU went on a scoring roll. They went on a 9-0 run to turn a 6-5 deficit into a 14-6 lead under seven minutes into the game. A series of free throws by UAFS's Skai Thompson ended the run and pulled the Lady Lions within four (14-10), but a pair of lay-ups by Taylor highlighted a 6-0 run and LCU led 20-10 with 10:52 remaining in the half. Taylor and Burton went on to connect on three-pointers inside seven minutes remaining in the half and a 12-1 LCU run had LCU leading 38-18 with six minutes left before the break. LCU held UAFS to a 28.1% (9/32) shooting mark in the opening half and led 45-30 at halftime.
UAFS rallied back in the second half. They opened the half on a 15-4 run, with Sydney Franklin scoring seven of the points off a trio of field goals to cut LCU's lead to 49-44 five minutes into the half.
Bailey Haist ended the run for LCU with one of the team's six three-pointers in the second half (Haist had three in the half). The Lady Lions hung around and trailed 62-54 (11:17 remaining) until Haist connected on an-other long range shot, which sparked a 9-0 LCU run to push their lead to 71-54 with 6:43 remaining.
LCU out-rebounded UAFS 28-18 in the first half, but were out-rebounded 29-16 in the second half. LCU's streak of six consecutive games out-rebounding their opposition ended, as UAFS had a 47-44 edge in rebounding. The Lady Chaps also outscored UAFS 22-10 in the paint during the first half before being outscored 22-8 in the paint for the second half (UAFS led the total 32-30).
The Lady Lions finished the game 33.3% (23/69) from the field. They had a miserable time at the charity stripe, as were only successful on 12 of 23 opportunities (52.2%). The mark was ironically the lowest by an LCU opponent since Dec. 6, 2013 when UAFS was 51.5% against the Lady Chaps from the line. UAFS did receive success from Franklin, Angi Ramey, Thompson and Lubbock native Jasmine Brainard. Frank-lin shared a game-high and produced a season best 17 points, with Brainard adding 16 points and Thompson contributing 11 points. Ramey recorded a game high 17 rebounds.
Lubbock Christian assisted on 20 of their 25 field goals, with Burton producing a career-high 12 assists as part of her third career double-double. Bruffey led LCU with 17 points and they also received 15 points from Haist and Taylor each. Haist tied a career mark for three-pointers for a fourth time this sea-son with four three-point field goals. Schneider led LCU with 16 rebounds. Five different Lady Chaps went perfect from the line and the team was 84.2% (16/19) from the free-throw line.
STREAK STILL STANDING
The Lady Chaps have had a lot of streaks over the past three seasons, as they have gone 67-10 since the start of the 2012-2013 season. One streak still remaining in a 20-game home conference win streak. Their last home loss in conference play was Jan. 10, 2010 against Oklahoma City University. They are 14-0 all-time in Heartland Conference home games.
HEADS AND TAYLS
LCU guard
Blair Taylor hit career high marks Saturday against Arkansas - Fort Smith, as she had a ca-reer-high 15 points and seven rebounds and tied a career high mark in three-pointers with three. Taylor has produced double figures in points seven times in her LCU career and four have come in the past five games.
BLOCKING IT OUT
The Lady Chaps lead all NCAA Div. II programs with 140 blocks this season. Their pace of 8.8 per game ranks second behind Emporia State (9.2). Individually,
Kellyn Schneider (63) and
Tess Bruffey (52) are both atop the Heartland Conference in blocks. Schneider's 63 blocks ranks tied for third amongst NCAA Div. II leaders and Bruffey ranks sixth. The two Lady Chaps marks already have them each in the top-three single-season totals in program history. Schneider is nine blocks away from setting the program's single-season record (Suzanne Copeland 71, 1999-2000).
TIME IS ON HER SIDE
Senior
Haley Burton has played in all 40 minutes in the prior four of the last five games. She has played in all 40 minutes in eight contests this season. Burton averages a conference leading 37.1 minutes a game this season.
INSIDE TALK
Kellyn Schneider is nearly averaging double figures in rebounds this season. She had 34 rebounds over the past two games, with 18 coming against Rogers State, which was the highest individual game total by a Lady Chap since Candace Clenney posted 19 on Feb. 23, 2006. Schneider has posted at least 10 rebounds in six of the past seven games and is averaging 12.7 rebounds per conference game.
HELPING HAND
Haley Burton, who eclipsed 100 assists this season this past weekend for the first time in her career, leads the Heartland Conference with 7.1 assists per game and a total of 114. The mark ranks her fourth nationally in total assists and fifth in assists per game. She also leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio. This past weekend, Burton produced 20 assists compared to only five turnovers over two games. Included in the mix was a career-high 12 assists Saturday against Arkansas - Fort Smith.
CHARITY STRIPE SUCCESS
Prior to making the move to NCAA Division II, LCU was in the top-10 in the NAIA in free-throw shooting for eight consecutive seasons: 12/13 (1st), 11/12 (1st), 10/11 (9th), 09/10 (5th), 08/09 (2nd), 07/08 (1st), 06/07 (6th) and 05/06 (9th). Last season, LCU led the conference with a 78.1% shooting mark from the free-throw line, which ranked fifth in NCAA Division II. Hoppel set the program's single season free-throw shooting mark last season at 93.8%. It broke
Nicole Hampton's mark of 92.4% from the 2011-2012 sea-son. This season, LCU ranks second in the Heartland Conference from the charity stripe with a mark of 74.2%.
Allison Szabo is second in the conference with a mark of 86.4% (51/59).
ABOUT OPSU
The Aggies enter the week 2-14 on the season overall and 0-6 in conference. Their last conference game resulted in an 85-64 loss to Rogers State. OPSU is 1-6 at home this season and 0-4 in conference home games. Kiera Waters leads the Aggies in scoring with a pace of 13.1 points per game.
THE SERIES AGAINST OPSU
OPSU leads the all-time series 21-20 despite the Lady Chaps winning 13 of the last 15 meetings. LCU swept the season series last season, winning 97-61 in their prior meeting and their prior visit to Goodwell, Okla. (Jan. 25, 2014).
THE LAST MEETING AGAINST OPSU
Jan. 25, 2014 (Goodwell, Okla.) - LCU: 97 / OPSU 61
Nicole Hampton recorded the second triple-double in program history with 11 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, and
Kelsey Hoppel's three three-pointers moved her into fifth place on Lubbock Christian Uni-versity's all-time career three-point field goal list, as the monumental contributions led the Lady Chapar-rals to a 97-61 Heartland Conference road win over Oklahoma Panhandle State University Saturday after-noon at Oscar Williams Field House. The win was LCU's 15th consecutive win.
Hampton has both triple-doubles in program history, with the first coming on Mar. 14, 2013 at the NAIA National Championship tournament against Southern-New Orleans. She completed the task Saturday in just 28 minutes of work. Hampton was sitting with nine points, eight rebounds and six assists at halftime.
Hoppel was on fire from long range in the game, just as she was at Newman University in LCU's prior game Thursday. She followed a 6-for-7 outside shooting performance going 3-for-4 Saturday to go 9-for-11 from long range on the week. The three treys at OPSU placed her with 156 career three-pointers to move her ahead of Kim Buchanan (155 from 1991-94). The three-pointers helped her produce a team-leading 19 points.
LCU had a very balanced attack in the contest and they never trailed in the contest for the first time in eight consecutive games. Nine different players had field goals for the Lady Chaps in the first half. OPSU did have a 6-0 run early in the first half to cut LCU's lead to 15-14 (14:05 remaining in the half), but LCU ended it with a runner from
Blair Taylor. That bucket started a 13-2 LCU run for a 28-16 lead with 9:44 to go in the half. Hoppel produced 13 points and teammate
Haley Burton added 11 points in the half, as LCU led as much as 29 points (53-24 with 2:22 to go) in the half and went to the locker room leading 56-28. Sarah Johnson was a workhorse in the half, supplying the Aggies with 16 points.
Hoppel opened the second half with the milestone three-pointer and it started an 8-2 run to open the half (11-2 run carrying over from the first half) and providing LCU a 64-30 lead three minutes into the half. LCU never led by less than 28 points in the half and ended the game on a 10-3 run.
Eleven of LCU's 12 players in the game had at least one field goal in the game. LCU produced five play-ers in double figures, with Hoppel's 19 points followed by Burton (13 points),
Allison Szabo (13 points),
Nicole Hampton (11 points) and
Hannah Harbin (10 points). Szabo's 13 points were a career high. John-son led OPSU with 24 points and was 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.
