LUBBOCK, Texas (November 12, 2021) – For the second straight season, Lubbock Christian University's men's basketball team has started things off on the right foot by winning in their first game, as they took down Regis 83-56 Friday night at the Rip Griffin Center.
 
The Chaps led wire-to-wire against the cold-shooting Rangers, who made only 33 percent of their shots on the night, including 22.2 percent from behind the arc. The 33 percent shooting percentage would have been the fourth-lowest by an LCU opponent during the 2022-21 season.
 
It was Lloyd Daniels who got the Chaps started with the first bucket of the season after a missed three-pointer by Regis. The shooting woes for the Rangers came early, and LCU jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Regis finally made a basket.
 
The Chap offense stayed hot, and a jumper by Daniels and three-pointer from Hicks stretched the lead out past 20 points with 10:34 left in the first half. Jalen Brattain increased the lead to 25 with a jumper four minutes later and then pushed it to its widest point of the opening period with a three-pointer at the 2:11 mark, as LCU led by 27. They went into halftime up by 46-24.
 
Regis shot slightly better in the first half and Lubbock Christian shot worse, leading to slightly closer play, but the Chap lead was never in danger of slipping away as the led by at least 16 points for the remainder of the game.
 
It was at the 16:56 mark that the Rangers first cut the deficit to 16 points, but Parker Hicks got to the free throw line to answer. The next two times the lead was cut to 16, the LCU answer came from freshman Aaron Gonzales, who hit a three-pointer in response both times.
 
Lubbock Christian finally began pulling away again with just under 10 minutes to go, when Aamer Muhammad made a pair of free throws and then hit a three-pointer to put the Chaps up by 22. Muhammad was impressive in the first game of the year, setting a new career-high with 23 points (7/15) while chipping in four rebounds and six assists.
 
LCU's lead got to its widest point at the 2:52 mark, as Brattain threw down a thundering dunk, and the Chaps ran out the clock en route to victory number one.

TURNING POINT
It didn't take long for Lubbock Christian to build a big lead, as they hit five of their first nine shots and took a 10-point lead before the first media timeout even came.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
10 | Lubbock Christian got 10 points from the only two true freshmen on the roster, including eight from Aaron Gonzales in just nine minutes on the floor.
92.9 | The Chaps missed just one free throw on the night, going 13-14 in their attempts from the charity stripe. Muhammad led the way with a 6-6 performance
20 | Regis turned the ball over 12 times in the game, and LCU capitalized, scoring 20 points off them
 
NEXT UP
The Chaps will have a quick turnaround, as they now face Colorado School of Mines on Saturday at 7 p.m.