LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (0-0, 0-0) 
vs. (RV) COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS (0-0, 0-0)
Friday, Nov. 9 – 5 PM
Bill Greehey Arena (San Antonio, Texas)
All-Time Series: CSM leads 3-0
 
AN ALAMO OPENING
Lubbock Christian University opens the 2018-19 campaign for a fourth consecutive season in the Heartland/RMAC Crossover, with San Antonio, Texas based St. Mary's University serving as host of the four-team classic. For a second consecutive season, LCU and Colorado School of Mines battle in a season opener, and the two teams meet for a fourth consecutive season.  LCU will follow facing Regis (Colo.) Saturday.
 
A LOOK BACK AT THE 2017-18 SEASON
The Chaparrals look to build off a 14-15 season a season ago. They completed their Heartland Conference schedule with a 9-7 record, which led to a No.4-seed at the Heartland Conference Tournament.  They defeated Rogers State in Tulsa, Okla. to advance to the semifinals, where they had their season end with a loss to Dallas Baptist. The Chaps, who played three of their last 11 games of the season at home, went 10-3 at home.
 
FOR STARTS
LCU returns four starters off their Heartland Conference Tournament appearance last season. The only starter lost is Marcos Schuster, who averaged 13.5 points a game last season and led the team with 119 made free-throws. Five of LCU's top six leading scorers return, led by Isaac Asrat, who averaged 16.8 points a contest and knocked down 81 three-pointers last season.
 
WHO HAS ARRIVED
LCU has one true freshman this season (Cade McDowell) and Oral Roberts transfer Spencer Sutton joining the squad this season. Silas Crisler, Jerrod Fowler and Cameron Copley are redshirt freshman looking for their collegiate debuts with the Chaps.
 
BEFORE WE GET UNDERWAY
The Chaparrals have been selected to finish second in the Heartland Conference's Preseason Poll. LCU senior Brennen Fowler was the lone unanimous pick to the Men's Basketball All-Heartland Preseason Team. Joining Fowler on the Preseason All-Heartland squad is Asrat.
 
LCU picked up 122 total points in the poll. Fowler returns as the leading rebounder in the Heartland from a season ago at 8.8 per game and Asrat is the conference's leading returning scorer after the transfer averaged 16.8 points per game in his first season at LCU.
 
OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
LCU is 2-5 in openers under head coach Todd Duncan.  The Chaps have dropped their last two season openers and have not claimed a season opening win since a 72-54 win over Regis on Nov. 13, 2015. Only two of their last seven openers have been at home.
 
FIVE FACTS ABOUT COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
-The Orediggers are coming off a 22-9 season in 2017-18. They qualified for the South Central Region Tournament, where they fell to West Texas A&M 79-65.
-CSM is picked second in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll behind Regis. The Orediggers received 203 points and four first-place votes to sit second in the poll behind last year's RMAC Tournament winner Regis (216 points, 8 first)
-Mines visited Boulder for an exhibition game at the University of Colorado for a second straight season, and despite a Orediggers 33-27 halftime lead, Colorado won 66-57.
- Mines will be led by a trio of returning starters in center Ben Clare, forward Michael Glen and point guard Ben Sonnefeld. All three earned Preseason All-RMAC honors.
- The 2018-2019 season marks Colorado Mines head coach Pryor Orser's 18^th season at the helm of the program. In his time as a head coach, Orser has compiled a 314-182 overall record.

THE SERIES AGAINST CSM
Friday's contest will mark the fourth ever meeting between the Chaps and the Orediggers. Mines owns a 3-0 record over LCU, with all meetings played games for RMAC/Heartland Crossover Challenge. In their most recent matchup, CSM outlasted Lubbock Christian in an 82-78 result in Denver, Colo. (11/10/17). Brennen Fowler registered a team-high 23 points in the loss.
 
PREVIOUS RECAP VS. CSM
Nov. 10, 2017 (Denver, Colo.) – CSM:82 - LCU:78
Lubbock Christian University men's basketball opened up their 2017-2018 campaign at Regis Fieldhouse in Denver, Colo. and 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. However, 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, however, 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, however, 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.