No.19 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (21-5, 15-1) at ST. MARY'S (14-10, 8-8)
Thursday, February 26 - 5:30 PM                                             
Bill Greehey Arena (San Antonio, Texas)    
Radio: KJTV AM950/100.7FM     
All-Time Series: LCU leads 6-1
Tweet #LCUvsStMU

TIME TO WRAP IT UP
No. 19 Lubbock Christian University plays their final games of their season this week and they are on the road, as LCU faces St. Mary's in San Antonio, Texas on Thursday and Texas A&M International Saturday afternoon in Laredo, Texas. LCU has clinched at least a share of the Heartland Conference regular sea-son title and need to win one of their last two games or have Arkansas - Fort Smith lose one of their last two games to win the regular season title outright. LCU is 21-5 overall and enters the week 15-1 in confer-ence and riding a 13-game win streak. The Lady Chaps are facing two teams that are amidst a group of five battle for four spot in the Heartland Conference Tournament. St. Edward's (9-7), St. Mary's (8-8), Texas - Permian Basin (8-8) and TAMIU (7-9) are each fighting for three open spots (one of the four spot is secured by UAFS).  

LOOKING BACK AT THE LAST GAME
Senior Haley Burton (14 points, 10 assists) and Allison Szabo (12 points, 10 rebounds) each had a dou-ble-double and teammate Haley Fowler produced 20 points, as Lubbock Christian University had five players in double figures in points and defeated University of Texas of the Permian Basin 88-53 to clinch at least a share of the Heartland Conference Regular Season title Saturday afternoon on Senior Day in-side Rip Griffin Center.

LCU never trailed in the contest, opening the game on a 5-0 run as part of a 12-3 run. UTPB pulled within five points on three occasions in the first half, but LCU closed the half making eight of their final nine shots of the half and out-scored UTPB 23-13 over the final five minutes for a 23-13 halftime lead. UTPB opened the game 1-of-15 from the field and 1-of-12 from three-point range (they would go onto to make four consecutive three-point field goal attempts to end the dry spell from long range). LCU, 6-of-9 from long range in the first half, had three players with at least 10 points in the half, led in the half by Burton's 12 points. UTPB had 14 of their 29 points in the half from Valerie Barriga.

Lubbock Christian University maintained a double-figure lead in the second half and held UTPB to 20% (7/35) shooting in the half. They put the game out of reach early in the half with a 15-2 run and never trailed by less than 30 points over the final nine minutes. Haley Fowler was 6-of-6 from the field in the second half and tallied 14 points in the half.

The Lady Chaps finished the game 8-of-12 (66.7%) from three-point range, with Bailey Haist going 3-for-3 from long range. She is a combined 8-for-8 from three-point range in the last two games. LCU out-scored UTPB 18-4 in second chance scoring, as LCU had a 55-39 rebound advantage. They also had 14 blocks, with Kellyn Schneider recording eight blocks (also had nine rebounds).

Fowler led LCU in scoring with her fifth 20-point performance of the season and of her LCU career. She was joined in double figures by teammates Burton (14 points), Szabo (12 points), Haist (11 points) and Tess Bruffey (11 points). Burton produced 10 assists for her fourth career double-double. LCU also re-ceived a career high six assists from Szabo, who completed her third career double-double. UTPB, who fell to 14-10 overall and 8-8 in conference, received a double-double from Barriga, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds.

ENTERING THE RANKINGS
Lubbock Christian University has made their way into the national rankings for the first time since leaving the NAIA and becoming members of the Heartland Conference, as they made their debut as the No.19 ranked program in the NCAA Division II National Media Poll sponsored by D2SIDA released Tuesday. The Lady Chaparrals were not eligible for any polls last season and this season became eligible to re-ceive votes for the D2SIDA rankings. They have been receiving votes for several weeks, but home wins over St. Edward's and Texas-Permian Basin allowed them to jump to No.2 in the D2SIDA Regional Rank-ings (South Central Region) and into the top-25 in the national rankings at no.19.

HAIST HONORED
Bailey Haist has been selected as the Heartland Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week the conference announced Monday. Haist, a sophomore from Colorado Springs, Colo., helped LCU with a 2-0 week averaging 18.5 points on the week. She was 13-of-15 on the week from the field, missing only two shots from the field. Haist went 8-for-8 from three-point range, including a 5-for-5 performance against St. Edward's to help LCU shoot 75% in the second half to rally from a halftime deficit to win 86-70. She had a career-high 26-point performance in the game, going 9-for-10 from the field. Haist followed the performance going 4-for-5 from the field in a win over Texas - Permian Basin, to help LCU clinch at least a share of the Heartland Conference Regular Season title. The first-year Lady Chap leads the Heart-land Conference and is third amongst NCAA Div. II players with a 47.8% shooting percentage from three-point range. This honor is the first of her career and she is the second Lady Chap recognized by the Heartland Conference this season. Kellyn Schneider received the honor on Jan. 26.

STREAK STILL STANDING
The Lady Chaps have had a lot of streaks over the past three seasons, as they have gone 77-10 since the start of the 2012-2013 season. One streak still remaining is a 25-game home conference win streak. Their last home loss in conference play was Jan. 10, 2013 against Oklahoma City University. They are 19-0 all-time in Heartland Conference home games.

REBOUND LADDER
Junior forward Kellyn Schneider enters the week with 273 rebounds (10.5 per game) and is four rebounds away from moving past Mamy N'Kolomoni for the fifth best single-season rebounds mark in program history. N'Kolomoni had 276 during the 2000-2001 season. Schneider's pace of 10.5 rebounds per game would match a single-season program record.
 
BLOCKING IT OUT    
The Lady Chaps lead all NCAA Div. II programs with 242 blocks this season. Their pace of 9.3 leads all NCAA Div. II programs as well. Individually, Kellyn Schneider (109) and Tess Bruffey (80) are both atop the Heartland Conference in blocks. Schneider's 109 blocks (already a Conference and program single season record) ranks third amongst NCAA Div. II leaders (only 26 teams in NCAA Div. II have more blocks as a team than Schneider has as an individual) and Bruffey ranks seventh. The two Lady Chaps marks already have them atop the single-season totals mark in program history, and they rank in the top five amongst LCU's career leaders as well.
    
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Statistically, LCU leads the nation in blocks with a conference single season record 242 (135 was prior conference record) and in field goal defense, holding opponents to a 32.7% shooting mark. They also lead the Heartland Conference in field goal shooting at 47.3% (fourth nationally), three-point shooting at 36.9% (22nd in the nation), assists with 474 (fourth nationally) and assists per game at 18.2 (fourth na-tionally). They are unselfishly completing the task without a player in the top eight in conference scoring.

SENIOR SALUTE
Seniors Haley Burton and Callie Sandusky appeared in their final home game Saturday and will be play-ing in their final games as a Lady Chap this weekend. Over her four seasons, Burton has already claimed two All-Conference selections and is a member of LCU's one-thousand-point club. She has recorded 1,290 in her LCU career and ranks third in program history in assists with 430, three-pointers with 196, three-point attempts with 538 and is sixth in three-point shooting percentage at 36.4%. Along with her on the court success, Burton is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. Sandusky arrived at LCU in 2011 and joined the junior varsity program until she earned a spot with the varsity program as a soph-omore.  She has 52 career games played and she has recorded 17 blocks in her career. She has 10 blocks and is shooting over 48% from the field and over 73% from the free-throw line

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 fourth in the Heartland Conference from the charity stripe with a mark of 72.5%, but they do have the conference's leading shooter from the line (Allison Szabo, 89.1%).

ABOUT StMU
The Rattlers enter the week 8-8 in conference and 14-10 overall. They are coming off a 67-59 win over Texas A&M International. They had an eight-game stretch where they were 7-1 early in the season, but they are 2-5 over their last seven games. The Rattlers had also started the season 8-0 at home, but they have dropped their last two home games. They are led by Morgan Pullins, who leads the conference in scoring (19.8 points per game) and is second in the conference in rebounding (12.0). As a team, the Rat-tlers lead the conference in rebound margin (+5).

THE SERIES AGAINST StMU
LCU leads the all-times series 6-1. The two teams had met once (Nov. 22, 2005) since the 1991-92 season until meeting last season as conference foes. LCU swept the season series last season, winning the prior meeting in San Antonio 78-51. LCU won 70-62 in their prior meeting this season (Dec. 20, 2014 in Lub-bock).

THE LAST MEETING AGAINST StMU
Dec. 20, 2014 (Lubbock, Texas) - LCU: 70 / StMU 62
Haley Burton had 20 points and nine assists and teammate Kellyn Schneider had 12 rebounds and pro-duced seven of Lubbock Christian University's 11 blocks to help the Lady Chaparrals defeat St. Mary's University 70-62 in Heartland Conference play at Rip Griffin Center.

St. Mary's opened the game with the upper hand, going on an 8-0 run for a 15-10 lead eight minutes into the game. LCU responded with Bailey Haist connecting for a three-pointer to end the run and cutting the Rattlers lead to 15-13. Less than a minute later, Haley Fowler had a lay-up to jumpstart an 18-2 LCU run. The Rattlers went 7:17 without a field goals and LCU led 31-19 at the run's close with four minutes left in the half. LCU led 40-28 at the half.

Neither team had much of a run in an even paced second half. StMU was able to cut the deficit to 53-46 with 9:38 left, but Haley Burton knocked down a three-pointer for LCU to cap a 5-0 run and build the lead to 58-46 with 7:49 to go. LCU never let the lead slip under an eight-point margin the rest of the way.

Morgan Pullins had a solid performance for StMU with 26 points and 15 rebounds to complete the dou-ble-double in the loss. She had 22 of the Rattlers 64 field goal attempts. Kiara Etheridge also produced a double-double in the loss with 14 points and 10 rebounds. St. Mary's used a short bench, with only three subs used. They did not have any points off their bench.

Burton led LCU with 20 points and was near a double-double with nine assists. Bailey Haist (12) and Alli-son Szabo (11) each had double-figures in points. LCU had 11 blocks in the game, with Schneider lead-ing the way with seven.