LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (0-1) at REGIS UNIVERSITY (1-0)
Saturday, November 11 - 2:30 PM (Central)
Regis Fieldhouse (Denver, Colo.)
All-Time Series: Tied at 1-1
Tweet #LCUvsRU

 
HERE LIES THE CHALLENGE
Lubbock Christian University will close out their play at the Rocky Mountain/Heartland Conference Crossover Challenge Saturday afternoon against host school Regis University. The Chaps are 0-1 on the season after a tough 82-78 loss Friday afternoon to No. 9 Colorado School of Mines. LCU has not won a game in the RMAC/Heartland Crossover since the 2015-2016 season where they defeated Regis University 72-54 (11/13/15).
 
LAST GAME RECAP
DENVER, Colorado (November 10, 2017) – Lubbock Christian University men's basketball opened up their 2017-2018 campaign Friday afternoon at Regis Fieldhouse in Denver, Colo. The Chaps squared off against a No. 9 ranked Colorado School of Mines squad in the annual Rocky Mountain/Heartland Conference Crossover Challenge. Despite a mammoth second half performance by the LCU squad, the Chaparrals ultimately fell to the Orediggers 82-78 in a game that went down to the wire. Junior Brennen Fowler led Lubbock Christian with 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists in the season-opener.
 
Fowler opened up the scoring for LCU with an early layup. Despite his efforts, Colorado Mines came screaming back on a 14-2 run to take a 14-4 lead over the Chaps at the 16:09 mark of the opening period. CSM began to fall into a rhythm that disallowed the Chaparrals to pull any closer than a 10-point margin until a layup by Fowler cut the Oredigger's lead to eight with 7:01 left in the half. A pair of free throws and a layup by the Mines offense opened their lead back to 12, 30-18, with just under six minutes to play. Then, junior Isaac Asrat went on a heater scoring LCU's next 10 points to cut the Chap deficit to 37-28 at the 1:14 mark. Fowler knocked down an old-fashioned three-point play, but Colorado Mines ultimately scored the last bucket of the half on a layup by Zach Rusk to give the Orediggers a 39-31 lead at the break.
 
Lubbock Christian was led in the opening period by some sharp shooting from Asrat who went 4-of-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from downtown for 15 first-half points. As a team, the Chaparrals shot 39.3% (11-of-28) from the field and 4-of-7 (57.1%) from beyond the arc. Fowler led the charge on the boards with five of LCU's 19 rebounds for the half.
 
Luke Schroepfer led the Orediggers in the period with 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting and a pair of three-pointers. Overall, Colorado Mines drained five shots from beyond the arc and 15-of-32 field goals for a 46.9% shooting average. Schroepfer and Rusk combined for all four of CSM's free throws in the half to give their team a perfect mark from the stripe.
 
Once again, Fowler struck first in the second half with an early layup to narrow the Colorado Mines lead to six points. Schroepfer then scored seven of the Orediggers next nine points to take a 48-35 lead over LCU with 17:05 left to play. Senior Marcos Schuster then answered with his first three-pointer of the game for the Chaps. CSM continued to press on the offensive end and jumped to a 55-40 lead, their largest of the contest, with 15:02 on the clock. LCU's Jay Workman came back with a layup that sparked a 13-6 run for the Chaparrals that was capped off at the 11:39 mark with a Ja'Qualyn Gilbreath trey. Colorado Mines jumped to their final double-digit lead after a layup by Adam Laine, placing the score at 65-54 in favor of the Orediggers. Schuster once again struck from long-range initiating a 9-2 run for the Chaparrals that ended after a layup by Workman with 8:10 left in the contest. The squads then began trading points before Gilbreath knocked down a bucket inside the paint to cut the Orediggers lead to 73-72 with just over four minutes to play. Workman capitalized on a fast break lay-in at the 2:25 mark to regain the lead for LCU at 76-75. The advantage was short lived as Ben Clare converted from short range to return the lead to CSM with 1:34 on the clock. Ben Sonnefield wrapped a bow on the game for Colorado Mines with a last second free throw for a final score of 82-78 for the Orediggers.
 
The Chaparrals outscored Colorado Mines 47-42 in the period on 17-of-32 shooting (53.1%) from the field. Schuster, Gilbreath and Asrat combined for all five of LCU's three-pointers in the final half. Schuster sank four second-half free throws to help Lubbock Christian to an 8-for-10 free throw effort in the period. Fowler led the Chaps with 6-of-9 from the field and a pair of free throws for 14 points in the half. LCU also outrebounded the Orediggers 15-13 in the second period.
 
Colorado Mines had four players in double-figures, but were led by Schroepfer and Clare who posted 17 points each. As a squad, the Orediggers shot 50.9% (29-of-57) from the field and 6-of-12 from downtown. CSM's 14 second half free throws pushed the team to 18-for-21 (85.7%) from the charity stripe for the day.
 
After a slow opening period, LCU found their footing and knocked down 28-of-60 (46.7%) from the field and nine three-pointers, in the game, for a 47.4% (9-of-19) mark. Fowler recorded a game-high 23-point performance, but was just one of four Chaps to score in double figures with Asrat (18 points), Schuster (14 points) and Gilbreath (13 points) also doing their diligence on the offensive end. The Chaps registered 38 points inside the paint, 18 points off of turnovers and 13 points from the bench.
 
SECOND HALF STRENGTH
Lubbock Christian opened up their season with a lethargic first half against Colorado School of Mines where they were outscored 39-31 in the opening period. The Chaps returned from the locker room at halftime with an impressive offensive pace that allowed them to sink 47 points in the second half. Isaac Asrat was the lone LCU player to register double scoring figures in the opening half, but was assisted by Brennen Fowler (14 points), Marcos Schuster (12 points) and Ja'Qualyn Gilbreath (10) who were all able to post double scoring figures in the final period.
 
TROUBLE WITH THE OPENING
After Friday afternoon's loss, Lubbock Christian has been defeated in three of their past four season opening contests. There is a positive side, though, as that one season-opening victory came over Regis University in the 2015-2016 season. The Chaps are now 2-5 in season-opening contests since head coach Todd Duncan took the reins in the 2011-2012 season. Just one of those victories has come since LCU has finished their transition into NCAA Division II status. There is a bright side to this point, as Duncan has righted the ship and cruised to a winning overall season record in three of the past four seasons after losing the opening game. The one year in which he did not finish with a winning record was his inaugural campaign where he finished at 15-15 overall for a .500 record.

BOARD GAMES
LCU picked up where they left off last year in the rebounding category with their game against the Orediggers. Fowler led the charge with a game-high nine boards while Schuster was not far behind with seven rebounds of his own. In total, the Chaps outrebounded Colorado Mines 34-28 with 22 of those rebounds coming on the defensive end of the floor. Last season, the Chaparrals averaged 35 boards per game while outrebounding their foes by a 4.5 margin.
 
REGIS FACTS

• The Regis Rangers also opened up their season Friday with tilt against St. Mary's University (TX). The Rangers were taken to a pair of overtime periods before a go-ahead free throw with 1.6 seconds on the clock gave Regis an 83-82 victory over the Rattlers.
• With 83 points to their name, RU does most of their work inside of the paint. The Rangers scored 38 points from down low and 18 points off of second chance opportunities.
• Dexter Sienko led Regis with a 9-15 shooting performance against St. Mary's and 23 points. Surprisingly, none of his points came from outside of the arc. Sienko did add five free throws for his game-high performance. 
• The Rangers head into the 2017-2018 season after posting a 20-9 overall record and a 14-8 mark in conference play last season. RU made an early exit from the postseason after a first round loss to Metro State University of Denver in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament.
• In their season-opener on Friday afternoon, Sienko and Christian Little led Regis with nine rebounds each. In total, the Ranger squad pulled down an impressive 50 boards for the game. Despite the performance on the glass, RU was still outrebounded in the contest by a 53-50 margin against the Rattlers of St. Mary's.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST REGIS
Saturday's game will serve as the third ever meeting between the squads. The series is split at one game apiece with Regis winning the most recent encounter last season at Rip Griffin Center by an 80-78 margin. It was Jay Workman who led the Chaps in the last meeting posting 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and a pair of three-pointers. The Saturday afternoon contest will mark the first meeting between the teams in Denver, Colo. with Regis serving as the true home team.