LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (5-7, 0-1) at TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL (1-11, 1-1)
Monday, January 2, 2017 - 5:30 p.m.
Kinesiology & Convocation Building (Laredo, Texas)
Radio: KJTV am950/100.7fm
All-Time Series: LCU leads 7-1
CLOSING AND OPENINGS
Lubbock Christian University, who has not played at home since Nov. 21, completes their eight-game road trip Monday in Laredo, Texas facing St. Mary's University. LCU enters Monday's play 2-5 on the road trip, which spans 39 days and covers four different states and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico). Monday's game marks their first game of the 2017 calendar year.
LOOKING BACK AT THEIR LAST CONTEST
Allison Szabo (12 rebounds, 10 points) completed her third consecutive game with a double-double, but it was not enough, as St. Mary's University defeated Lubbock Christian University 55-47 to end the Lady Chaparrals 18-game Heartland Conference win streak and end a streak of 11 consecutive conference opening wins.
St. Mary's received a double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) by Arysia Porter and won the contest despite shooting 27% (20/74) from the field. The Rattlers had 27 more shot attempts than LCU, due in part to a 52-37 rebound advantage and a 17-8 advantage in forced turnovers. Credit the discipline of StMU, who committed eight turnovers and 10 fouls in the game. Toss in nine steals and StMU outscored LCU 11-2 in points off turnovers. Of the 52 rebounds for StMU, 25 were on the offensive end, leading to an 11-5 advantage in second chance scoring. The numbers spelled "doom" for LCU in the contest that did not see either team have more than an eight-point lead. StMU outscored LCU in each quarter, but did not outscore LCU by more than three points in any quarter. The contest also included seven lead changes.
LCU heaved up a season high 30 three-point attempts (most since Mar. 11 vs. Angelo State), connecting on nine of the attempts. The three-pointers did not come from the usual three-point shooters, as
Hannah Harbin (tied career high),
Allison Szabo (tied career high) and
Olivia Robertson (new career high) each contributed two three-pointers and each hit career marks in the process. Robertson led LCU with 12 points off 5-of-7 shooting from the field. Harbin just missed a double-double, as she had eight points and a career high nine rebounds.
The loss ended LCU's 18-game Heartland Conference win streak. It also ended a streak of 11 consecutive conference openers. They fall to 12-2 all-time under
Steve Gomez in conference openers and 3-1 in Heartland Conference openers. In addition, LCU falls to 4-2 all-time in games played on New Year's Eve.
St. Mary, who held LCU to 18 second-half points, outscored LCU 9-4 from the free-throw line.
DOUBLING UP
Allison Szabo is entering the game coming off three consecutive double-double performances. She had three in her career prior to posting 14 points and 13 rebounds at Southwestern
Oklahoma State, following at Tarleton State with 11 rebounds and 10 points and continuing with a 12-rebound, 10-point performance Saturday at St. Mary's. She has increased her rebounding average to a season best 8.0 per game.
MILESTONES
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Tess Bruffey is 17 points shy of 900 career points.
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Tess Bruffey is three blocks away from 205, which would move her into the top spot, past
Kellyn Schneider (204), as LCU's career blocks leader.
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Allison Szabo is six blocks shy of 93 career blocks, which would move her into fifth on LCU's career blocks list and ahead of Mamy N'Kolomoni, who had 93 blocks from 1998-2002.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TAMIU
• The Dustdevils, who went 15-12 last season (7-4 at home) are struggling with a 1-11 record this season, but are 1-1 in conference play.
• The Heartland preseason picked TAMIU to finish eighth in the conference. They went 12-6 in conference play last season.
• TAMIU's lone win this season came Dec. 19 in a 45-39 win at home over Rogers State, which was their last conference game played.
• The Dustdevils have one of the smallest rosters (similar to last season), running eight active players (one of which has only played two games). Four players average at least 30 minutes a game. In comparison, LCU's
Tess Bruffey is the only Lady Chap averaging at least 30 minutes played.
• TAMIU is in their first season with Jeff Caha serving as head coach, which is his first head coaching gig after serving as an assistant at Eastern New Mexico.
THE SERIES AGAINST TAMIU
LCU leads the all-times series 7-1 against TAMIU. The Lady Chaps won the first five series meetings. Their prior meeting in Laredo, Texas resulted in a 75-55 LCU win on Dec. 17, 2015. LCU is 5-1 against TAMIU since joining the Heartland Conference and 2-1 in Laredo in that span.
Feb. 25, 2016 (Lubbock, Texas) - LCU :74 - TAMIU:61
No.1 Lubbock Christian University had to fight off a 25-point performance from Texas A&M International University's Jessica Prieto with 18 points each from seniors
Nicole Hampton and
Kelsey Hoppel, as the Lady Chaparrals celebrated Senior Day and their regular season finale with a 74-61 win.
It appeared another signature quick start by LCU was going to carry them once again Saturday, jumping out to an 8-0 lead one minute into the game. The start was spirited by consecutive three-pointers from
Kelsey Hoppel, but TAMIU had their first of many responses to LCU runs. The Dustdevils responded with a 7-0
run and cut LCU's lead to 8-7. Hoppel hit a third three-pointer (5:24 into the game) and Hampton connected as well to extend the LCU lead to 14-7. They jumped out to an 18-10 lead before taking an 18-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Prieto had 10 points in the second quarter and used one of two three-pointers in the quarter to cap an 8-1 run, which cut an LCU lead from 21-13 to 22-21. It was part of a sequence in which the Dustdevils went a span of 6:46 outscoring LCU 18-6 for a 31-27 lead (2:12 remaining in half).
Bailey Haist and
Tess Bruffey answered with three-pointers to help LCU close the half on an 8-2 run for a 35-33 halftime lead.
The third quarter was back and forth with LCU never leading by more than eight points and never leading by less than two points. The LCU 8-2 run to close the first half was part of a 13-2 LCU run, as LCU opened the third quarter with a 5-0 run for a 40-33 lead 1:44 into the quarter. Each time TAMIU cut the game to a one-possession game, LCU had a response. Chelsea Salom produced a layup to cut LCU's lead to 42-20 in the quarter and LCU's response was a 6-0 run capped with another three-pointer by Hoppel. LCU led 54-51 to start the fourth quarter and Prieto helped cut the lead to 56-55, which turned out to be as close as TAMIU would get. Bruffey responded with back-to-back buckets to push the lead to 60-55 before another three-pointer by Prieto got the Dustdevils within a pair at 60-58. From that point, LCU closed the game's final 5:53 with a 14-3 run. TAMIU went scoreless the final 2:21 of the game. Each team had senior leaders fighting it out in the quarter. Prieto scored eight of TAMIU's final 10 points, while Hampton scored eight points for LCU over the final 4:27 of the game (six in the final 1:14 and over a stretch of 35 seconds).
TAMIU headed into the fourth quarter shooting 52% (18/34) from the field, but they were 4-of-17 (23.5%) from the field in the fourth quarter. Despite the fourth quarter struggles, TAMIU still finished with the best shooting percentage by an LCU opponent this season (43.1%). Both teams were solid from downtown. TAMIU was 52.4% (11/21) from three-point range (Prieto was 5-of-9), while LCU was 50% (11/22) from long range.
Hoppel was 6-of-10 from three-points range and her six three-point field goals placed her as the program's career leader in three-point field goals (253) ahead of Jordan Hampton, who had 248 from 2005-09. Hampton also clinched some milestones in the game, going 4-for-4 from the charity stripe to place her second on LCU's career free-throw list with 463 made free-throws, passing Brittany Roberts (459 from 2008-12). She also had six field goals to place her fifth on LCU's career list of field goals with 538, which moved her past Jordan Hampton, who had 536 from 2005-09. Roberts and Jordan are Nicole's older sisters.
Prieto, 10-of-23 from the field, tallied 25 points marking the most points by an LCU opponent this season and topping her prior mark of 24 points from the two team's prior season meeting in Laredo. Joining Prieto was Keiona Mathews, who tallied 18 points and nine rebounds.
Hampton missed a double-double, tallying nine assists to go along with her 18 points. Hoppel matched a season high in three-pointers and rebounds, getting six in each category. Bruffey joined Hampton and Hoppel in double figures with 10 points.
