GOLDEN, Colo. (November 13, 2015) – A passionate performance by Tyler Rogers produced a game-high 17 points, and a 23-5 Lubbock Christian University run during the final seven minutes capped a 72-54 season-opening victory over Regis for the Chaparrals Friday night at the RMAC/Heartland Challenge inside Lockridge Arena on the campus of Colorado School of Mines.
 
The contest was the first in over a year for Rogers as he sat out last season as a redshirt and played tonight's game with emotion after a difficult week while still managing to hit eight of his 14 shots and reel in five rebounds. Isaac Cardona added 16 points for the Chaps (1-0, 0-0 Heartland) while Marcus Arrington flirted with a triple-double by stuffing the stat sheet with 11 points, a career and game-high 10 rebounds and eight assists. 
 
A bucket by Ridrell Holman at the 6:12 mark in the second half broke a 49-49 tie, and Holman then guided Rogers to a dunk for a 53-49 advantage. Arrington drained his third three-pointer of the night before Rogers hit a jumper, and Matthew Alford contributed a pair of free throws to extend the Chap lead to double-digits at 60-49. Another dunk by Rogers and two three-point plays by Cardona, one by means of an and-one and the other via a three-pointer, finalized 21 unanswered LCU points.
 
The final margin was not indicative of the closeness throughout the game within the first 33 minutes. Regis (0-1, 0-0 RMAC) put up the first six points of the contest but never led by a larger margin the rest of the way. The Chaps used a 9-0 spurt, beginning with five successive points by A.J. Luckey, to take a 24-18 lead with 3:54 to play in the first half and led by just as much at the break.
 
Another Cardona three-point play gave LCU a 43-33 advantage, and shot from beyond the arc by Marcos Shuster gave the Chaps their biggest lead up to that point at 46-33 with 13:56 left on the clock. Nine consecutive points by the Rangers sliced the lead to 46-42 with under 10 minutes to play, and moments later RU's Noah King added five points to knot the score at 49-49 before LCU would piece together their incredible run.
 
The Chaps continue play tomorrow in Golden and will face the host team in #10 Colorado School of Mines.