LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (8-5, 5-3, 2-2) at
EASTERN NEW MEXICO (5-8, 5-3, 2-2)
Thursday, January 16 – 8:30 p.m. CT
Greyhound Arena – Portales, New Mexico
lonestarconferencenetwork.com/lcu
100.7 The Score
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Lubbock Christian will head back out from Lubbock after wrapping up a three-game homestand over the last two weeks. The Chaps went 2-1 during the homestand with wins over Western New Mexico and UT Permian Basin and a loss to Angelo State. Next up comes a road matchup with Eastern New Mexico, who they are currently tied with in the Lone Star Conference divisional standings, with each team sitting at 2-2 in the division. LCU has won five of its last six games and seven of their last nine games dating back to November 29.
 
ROAD JOURNAL
Thursday's matchup with Eastern New Mexico will be LCU's fifth  true road game of the season and their sixth away from home overall. LCU is 2-2 in true road games so far this year and 2-3 in games away from the Rip Griffin Center overall. The Chaps have scored just 65 points per game across those four contests while allowing 70.0 points from their opponents. However, they have won two straight games on the road, defeating Cameron in Lawton and Midwestern State in Wichita Falls before the Christmas break. Lloyd Daniels and Rashaan Proctor are both averaging double-figures on the road with 12.8 and 12.0 points per game, respectively.
 
LOOKING AT THE LONE STAR
LCU is playing in the Lone Star Conference for the first time ever this season, currently boasting a 5-3 overall record and a 2-2 record within their division. Daniels has been LCU's leading scorer through their eight conference games so far with 14.4 points per game, which is the 14^th-best mark in the league. Currently leading LCU's division are West Texas A&M and Angelo State with identical 4-0 divisional records, although WT is 7-1 overall in conference play and ASU is 6-2. St. Edward's and DBU are tied for one of the other divisional leads, with Texas A&M-Commerce and Oklahoma Christian tied in the third.
 
BEYOND THE ARC
Freshman Ty Caswell would lead the Lone Star Conference and rank second among all Division II players with a three-point field-goal percentage of 52.5, but he is just under the requirement of 2.5 made per game (at 2.46). The Wichita Falls native has attempted 61 three-pointers so far this season, making 32 of them. As a team, LCU leads the Lone Star Conference and ranks 27^th nationally, making 39.5 percent of their attempts. They have attempted the seventh-fewest three-pointers in the LSC (309), but still average 9.4 made three-pointers per game.
 
 
NEW-LOOK CHAPS
After losing their two leading scorers from a season ago, Lubbock Christian brought in a number of new faces to help the offense reload. So far this season, 53.2 percent (40.2 points per game) of the Chaps' scoring is coming from players who were not on the team a season ago. Lloyd Daniels leads the group of newcomers with a team-high 12.9 points per game and is shooting .524, which is the eighth-best mark in the LSC. Freshman Ty Caswell is also averaging double figures at 11.1 points per game, while Texas Tech transfer Parker Hicks is scoring 9.4 per game and leading the team with 6.3 rebounds per game. Aamer Muhammad and Joshua Davey have also contributed off the bench.
 
CHARITY WORK
LCU is 149-191 (78 percent) from the free throw line this season, which is the best mark in the Lone Star Conference and ranks No. 19 among the 303 Division II men's basketball teams. On the road, they have shot slightly better with a .783 mark (36-46) on foul shots. No Chap player has taken enough attempts to factor into the national rankings for free throw percentage (minimum 2.5 per game), but Zach Stepp (2-2, 1.000), Silas Crisler (16-17, .941), Caswell (14-16, .875) and Muhammad (6-7, .857) are all shooting better than 80 percent from the charity stripe this year.
 
HELPING HANDS
Two of LCU's guards, Cameron Copley and Lloyd Daniels, have been some of the best at assisting their fellow teammates through the first 13 games of the 2019-20 season. Copley, who is the Chap leader in assists per game with 5.9 (77 total), ranks second in the LSC in that category behind only August Haas of St. Edward's, who averages. 7.9 per contest. Daniels also trails Haas in the conference statistical category of Assist/Turnover ratio. The Colts Neck, New Jersey native averages a team-second 3.9 assists per game, but only turns the ball over 1.2 times per game for a ratio of 2.9. As a team, the Chaps rank second in the league and 42^nd nationally with 16.5 assists per game.
 
SCOUTING THE GREYHOUNDS

• ENMU ranks No. 31 nationally and fifth in the Lone Star Conference in turnovers forced with 16.5 per game. They turn the ball over 20.1 times per game though for a turnover margin of -3.2
• Devin Pullum leads the Greyhounds with an average of 13.8 points per game. He has scored at least 20 points four times this season, including a season-high 26 points in their most recent game against UT Permian Basin
• Eastern New Mexico has the third worst scoring defense in the league, allowing an average of 80.9 points per game. Only UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico allow more points per game.
• Forward Yosnier Cobas averages exactly one blocked shot per game (13), which is the eighth-most in the LSC. The Miami native also leads his team in rebounding with 6.2 boards per game
• Eastern New Mexico opened the season with exhibitions at the University of Tennessee and the University of New Mexico

THE SERIES WITH ENMU
Lubbock Christian and Eastern New Mexico first met in December of 1971, which was just LCU's second season as a senior college. The Greyhounds won that meeting 76-59, sparking a rivalry that has see-sawed back and forth over the last 48 years. ENMU leads the all-time series 32-31, taking the edge in the last meeting with an 82-73 win in 2017. The longest win streak in the series belongs to LCU though, as they won five straight in the late 1980s. The Chaps will try and restore a tie in the all-time series with a win Thursday.