LUBBOCK, Texas (November 20, 2021) – Arlington Baptist put up a fight, but a strong shooting performance by the Lubbock Christian University men's basketball team helped them pull away for a 92-74 win on Saturday in the Rip Griffin Center.
 
Five different LCU players reached the double-digit scoring mark for a comfortable fourth Chap win of the season, despite the Patriots shooting 51.9 percent from the field, including 57.1 percent from behind the arc.
 
LCU had a pretty solid shooting performance in the game as well, and started off the game hitting on 48 percent of their shots in the first half. A pair of baskets from Rowan Makenzie got the team going and when Lloyd Daniels hit the third Chap three-pointer of the game to put them up by seven just five and a half minutes in, Lubbock Christian seemed to be cruising.
 
The only problem was, the Patriot shooters weren't missing much either. They hit 14 of their 27 attempts, six of which came from behind the arc, making it hard for the Chaps to pull away. With just over 13 minutes left in the half, Arlington Baptist was down by two and took a three-pointer that could have given them the lead, but it missed and Zach Stepp hit a three on the other end to give the Chaps some breathing room.
 
Arlington Baptist pulled within two again at the 11:29 mark, but LCU followed with four straight three-pointers – two from Stepp, one from Brattain and one from Makenzie – to get the lead all the way out to 14 points.
 
Brattain matched his career high of 16 points in the win, with 14 of those coming in the first half. Stepp, meanwhile, did set a new career high with 15 points, surpassing his previous high mark of 13 set on Jan. 4, 2019 against Randall. All five of his made field goals came from behind the arc.
 
The Patriots ended the first half on a 12-5 run that put them down just seven to start the final 20 minutes of play, and they cut it to four before the first media timeout of the half. An and-one layup from Daniels right after that basket sparked a 13-0 run by the Chaps that didn't end until the 12 minute mark, by which point LCU led by 17 and had the game in hand.
 
Stepp hit from behind the arc with 8:34 left to push the lead to 20 points, which was the widest ever, got, but Arlington Baptist never cut it to single-digits again either.
 
TURNING POINT
Arlington Baptist was held scoreless for a stretch of four minutes and 28 seconds from the 16:28 mark until the 12:00 mark, while LCU went for 13 points, seven of which came from the free throw line.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
42 | Parker Hicks was one rebound shy of notching his third double-double of the season. His nine rebounds in the win brought his season total to 42, or an average of 10.5 per game
57.1 | The Patriots hit 12 of their 21 attempts from behind the arc, or 57.1 percent, which is the highest an opponent has shot on three-pointers this season
10 | All 10 active players on the LCU roster appeared in the game.
91.8 | The Chaps came into the game ranked No. 2 in all of Division II with a free throw percentage of 90.0, but they raised that mark to 91.8 with an 11-11 performance on Saturday
 
NEXT UP
After playing their first four games of the season at home, the Chaps will make a long road trip to the Aloha State, where they will face Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade over Thanksgiving Break.