LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (17-8, 14-6) at
UT PERMIAN BASIN (15-14, 8-12)
Thursday, February 27 – 7:30 p.m.
Falcon Dome – Odessa, Texas
 
REGULAR SEASON WRAP-UP
The Lubbock Christian men's basketball team will close out the regular season this weekend with a pair of road games, starting with Thursday's matchup against UT Permian Basin in the Falcon Dome. The Chaps are riding a two-game win streak at the moment, having beaten Texas A&M International and Texas A&M-Kingsville in their last two home games of the year. The win over the Javelinas moved them into a tie for third in the Lone Star Conference standings, and since they hold the tiebreaker over TAMUK they would be the No. 4 seed if the league tournament began today.
 
REGIONALLY RECOGNIZED
If the season were to end today, the Chaps would be one of the eight teams from the South Central Region to advance to the NCAA Tournament. The Chaps moved up a spot from week one to week two after sitting in ninth in the first rankings. Conference rival West Texas A&M has been the No. 1 seed in the rankings both weeks and would host the tournament currently. Three other Lone Star Conference teams would also make the regional as of right now, including St. Edward's (No. 2), Dallas Baptist (No. 4) and Angelo State (No. 5).
 
ROAD JOURNAL
Thursday's matchup with UT Permian Basin will be LCU's 11th true road game of the season and their 12th away from home overall. LCU is 6-5 in true road games so far this year and 6-4 in games away from the Rip Griffin Center. The Chaps have scored just 68.5 points per game across those seven contests while allowing 71.2 points from their opponents. Lubbock Christian also has a pair of impressive second-half comebacks on the road this season. They outscored Texas A&M-Commerce 28-9 over the final nine minutes for a win and scored 13 points in the final two minutes of the win against UT Tyler. Lloyd Daniels (16.6), Ty Caswell (10.9) and Parker Hicks (10.5) are all averaging double-figures on the road.
 
BEYOND THE ARC
Of their 550 attempted three-pointers this season, the Chaps have made exactly 40.2 percent (221), which is the best percentage in the Lone Star Conference and ranks No. 18 nationally. LCU has averaged 8.83 three-pointers per game this season, led by Parker Hicks, who averages 2.52 per game and leads the conference at 43.4 percent. His teammate, Ty Caswell, would rank No. 2 nationally with a .500 percentage from behind the arc, but he averages just 2.26 made per game.
 
CHARITY STRIPE
Although they have attempted the second-fewest free throws in the Lone Star Conference, Lubbock Christian leads the league and ranks 10th nationally in free throw percentage at 79.6 percent. The Chaps set a new Lone Star Conference record earlier this season when they went 27-27 from the free throw line in the win against No. 4 St. Edward's. Daniels leads the team and ranks No. 2 in the league with an 84.8 free throw percentage (89-105), but another five Chaps have attempted at least 15 free throws and are shooting better than 80 percent on the year.
 
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, 62.8 percent (47.2 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 16.0 points per game and is shooting .558, which is the third-best mark in the LSC. Hicks is second on the team with 12.6 points per game and set a new career-high with 23 last Thursday. Caswell averages 11.0 points per game. Aamer Muhammad has scored in double-figures five times this year, and Joshua Davey has also contributed off the bench.
 
FRESH OUT OF THE OVEN
The Chaps have been one of the best teams in the conference and in the country at both forcing turnovers and limiting turnovers of their own, leading them to a No. 35 national ranking in turnover margin. LCU forces an average of 14.80 turnovers per game. They also leads the Lone Star Conference in fewest turnovers with just 297 this season (11.9 per game), giving them a turnover margin of 2.9. The Chaps have committed 15 or fewer turnovers in 20 games so far this season, going 15-5 in that time. Conversely, they are 2-3 when they turn the ball over more than 15 times.
 
SCOUTING THE FALCONS

• UTPB leads the LSC and ranks No. 16 in the nation in free throws made this season with 469. They trail only Lubbock Christian in the league in free throw percentage, shooting 75.4 percent for the year
• Pat Dembley leads the team's free throw attack as well as pretty much everything else they do on offense. Dembley averages 21.8 points per game, which is the second-most in the LSC and the 25^th most nationally
• The Falcons have the third-best offense in the LSC, averaging 84.1 points per game. They do it by attempting the second-most shots in the league and hitting an efficient 48.5 percent of them
• UT Permian Basin is lacking, however, in defense, where they allowed 83.4 points per game, which is the second-worst mark in the Lone Star Conference only behind Western New Mexico
• Josh Newman is the head coach of the Falcons in his second season at the helm of the pro-gram. He led them to a 15-14 record and seventh place LSC finish last season with a roster that featured no returning players

 
THE SERIES WITH UTPB
Lubbock Christian and UT Permian Basin have med 17 times in the history of the two programs, with LCU leading the all-time series 13-4. The first meeting between the two teams was in 2002 and was won 92-49 by the Chaps, and they won the first eight meetings overall, before UTPB finally got a win in 2014. The two teams faced off earlier this season, with LCU winning 72-67 in the Rip Griffin Center.