FORT SMITH, Arkansas (February 5, 2021) – Lubbock Christian University's men's basketball team set a new program record on Friday, beating Arkansas-Fort Smith 76-72 for its 11^th straight win to begin the 2020-21 season.
 
The win surpasses the previous program record of 10-0, which was set by the 1996-97 Chaparrals under former head coach/athletic director John Copeland.
 
It would have been nice to cruise to an easy, stress-free victory for the program record, but that was not the case, as the Chaps needed clutch buckets from Ty Caswell and free throws down the stretch from Cameron Copley and Aamer Muhammad to hold off the Lions and secure the win.
 
The star of the game, however, as freshman Gonzalo Corbalan. UAFS had no answer for the Argentina native, who was 9-12 from the field (2-2 from behind the arc) and 12-15 from the free throw line en route to a career-high 32 points. The 32 points are also the most by a Chaparral player this season and the most since Lloyd Daniels scored 35 in a win over Texas A&M-Commerce last season.
 
Daniels scored the first Chap points of Friday's game, hitting a layup after LCU got down 5-0 early. The Chaps took the lead for the first time at the 16:25 mark, when Muhammad made a layup and was fouled, hitting the ensuing free throw.
 
The two teams mostly traded buckets for the next 10 minutes until the 8:21 mark, when Corbalan got to the free throw line to spark an 8-0 LCU run that put them up by double-figures for the first time.
 
Payton Brown basically willed the Lions back into the game himself though. He all 12 of the UAFS points to close out the half and was the only player to score at all in the final 2:27 until the teams went to their locker rooms with LCU up just 37-34. Brown ended the game with 23 points, just behind leading Lion scorer Matthew Wilson, who had 24.
 
A Chris Rollins dunk followed by a layup tied the game at 37-all quickly into the second half before Corbalan hit a three-pointer to get the Chaps back out in front.
 
UAFS kept it close, never letting the Chaps lead by more than eight, and with just under ten minutes to play. It wasn't defensive effort that brought them back into the game, because the Chaps were still making shots. But Wilson drilled three straight three-pointers, and Brown added in another for good measure. All of the sudden, the Lions had a two-point lead with just 6:07 to go.
 
Senior Parker Hicks tied the game back up with a layup before Corbalan got back to the free throw line to give LCU the lead.
 
Caswell had two big layups in the game's closing minutes and free throws kept the Chaps on top until the final horn sounded.
 
TURNING POINT
The layup from Hicks with 5:10 remaining in the game followed by a defensive stop stalled the momentum UAFS had been building with a 15-7 run and allowed LCU to control the final minutes of the game.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Coming into the weekend, LCU opponents were shooting just 40.1 percent on the year, but the Lions hit 51 percent of their shots on Friday night, making UAFS the first team this season to shoot better than 50 percent against the Chaps.
 
NEXT UP
Lubbock Christian will be back at it against the same team on the same court Saturday, with tipoff against Arkansas-Fort Smith slated for 5 p.m.