LUBBOCK, Texas - The no. 16 Chaps look to get back on track after two straight losses, taking on Arlington Baptist in their lone nonconference home game at the Rip Griffin Center on Monday, Nov. 21.

Arlington Baptist (0-4) at No. 16 Lubbock Christian (1-2)
Monday, Nov. 21 - 6 PM
The Rip Griffin Center - Lubbock, Texas

GIVE AN ASSIST
Fans who bring five canned food items or non-perishable food items to the game to benefit Green Lawn Church of Christ will receive free admission to the game. The LCU Student Athlete Advisory Committee will be at the door to collect the items.

NEED TO KNOW
- LCU is coming off a 66-57 loss to no. 12 Southern Nazarene. It is the first time LCU has lost back-to-back games since Nov. 8-9, 2019 when the Chaps lost to Regis and Colorado School of Mines to open the season. That is also the last time the Chaps have been under-.500.
- Freshman Kendall Dow scored a career-high 11 points vs SNU. It is the first time Dow has led the Chaps in scoring.
- Rowan Mackenzie set a new career-high with five steals at SNU. It's the second straight game Mackenzie has set a career-high in steals.
- Arlington Baptist is 0-4 this season, coming off a 99-67 loss to Angelo State. ABU is 0-2 against Lone Star Conference teams this season, also losing 94-53 to St. Edward's

AN HISTORIC SEASON
The Chaps are coming off another historic season, starting the year 20-0 and climbing to no. 1 in the national rankings on the way to claiming a second straight LSC Regular Season Championship. LCU earned the no. 1 seed in the South Central Region, hosting the first three rounds of the NCAA DII Tournament at the Rip Griffin Center before falling to Colorado Mesa in the second round. The Chaps had six members of the Lubbock Christian University men's basketball team were recognized with Lone Star Conference postseason awards, including Parker Hicks being named the league's Player of the Year for the second straight season.
Joining Hicks on the the All-LSC First Team was teammate Lloyd Daniels. Aamer Muhammad was an All-LSC Second Team selection, Rowan Mackenzie was an All-LSC Honorable Mention pick, and Aaron Gonzales was picked for the All-Freshman Team. Head coach Todd Duncan repeated as the league's Coach of the Year.

ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT
Rowan Mackenzie is the top scorer returning for the Chaps this season. Mackenzie built off a strong freshman campaign, starting in 28 games for the Chaps. He scored 20 points twice in the 2021-22 season, dropping 20 points and shooting 6-for-7 from three against Oklahoma City on Dec. 6, and scoring 20 points against UTPB on Jan. 29. 
This season, Mackenzie is leading the Chaps in scoring, averaging 20.7 points per game. The junior scored a career-high 35 points against Colorado School of Mines on Nov. 12, draining seven three-pointers, just three shy of tying the school record of most threes made in a single game. 
Mackenzie has set a career-high in steals in back-to-back games, picking up four steals against Colorado Mines and five steals against Southern Nazarene.

NOT SHY AT ALL
Transfer Kurt Wegscheider leads the team in rebounds, averaging 7.0 a game. In his first game with LCU against Regis on Nov. 11, Wegscheider finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Wegscheider played in 28 games for Utah State Eastern College, averaging 14.2 points and 4.2 rebounds a game. He recorded a double-double on Nov. 19 against Central Wyoming College, scoring a season-high 24 points and a season-high 12 rebounds. Wegscheider also tallied 41 steals and 44 assists this season.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
A total of nine new players will make their debut for the Chaps this season. Of those nine, three are transfers, led by Louisiana-Monroe transfer Russell Harrison. The Monterrey High product averaged 13.1 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game with the Warhawks last season, including a game on 1/6/2022 when Harrison scored 28 points and pulled down 13 boards against Arkansas State. 
Two junior college transfers join the Chaps, with Najeeb Muhammad coming over from Arizona Western College, while Kurt Wegscheider comes over from Utah State East College.
Muhammad played in 28 games for Arizona Western College, averaging 11.1 points, 5.0 assists and 3.1 rebounds a night. He shot 37.6% from the floor, including 35.7% from beyond the arc. Muhammad recorded a season-high 21 points on Nov. 10 against the College of Southern Nevada. He recorded double-digit assists twice this season, dishing out 10 assists against Gateway C.C. on Feb. 9 and recording a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists on Nov. 20 against Eastern Arizona College. Muhammad's 139 total assists ranked third in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference.

DOW WITH THE SICKNESS
For the first time this season, a freshman led the Chaps in scoring, as Kendall Dow scored 11 points against Southern Nazarene on Nov. 19. Dow scored seven of those points in the final 69 seconds of the game against the Crimson Storm. 
In high school, Dow averaged 19.2 points per game at SA Johnson High School in San Antonio. Dow also averaged 4.9 rebounds per game, 2.1 assists per game and 1.3 steals per game for the Jaguars

THE LID IS STUCK
After ranking fifth in Division-II last season in field goal percentage and 10th in three-point percentage, the Chaps have yet to find their offense this season, shooting just 46.2 percent from the floor and 37.9 percent from beyond the arc. LCU is also struggling with freebies, shooting just 70 percent from the free throw line. 
It took Lubbock Christian until the 10:39 mark of the opening half to score their first field goal against Southern Nazarene on Nov. 19, starting the game 0-for-13 from the floor and 0-for-6 from three. LCU did end the game against the Crimson Storm on a 31-9 run over the last 9:39, shooting 11-for-15 (73.3 percent) from the field and 3-for-4 (75 percent) from three in that stretch.

NATIONALLY KNOWN
The Chaps enter the season ranked no. 16 in the NABC National Polls after finishing the 2021-22 season ranked seventh. LCU will play four games against teams that were ranked in the NABC preseason poll, falling to no. 12 Southern Nazarene 66-57 on Nov. 19. The Chaps will face no. 8 West Liberty on Dec. 17 at the Holiday Hoops Classic in Las Vegas, Nev., and back-to-back contests against no. 5 West Texas A&M to close out the regular season on Feb. 23 and 25. LCU also has matchups against three teams that were recieving votes in the preseason poll, falling 69-66 to Colorado School of Mines on Nov. 12 and Dallas Baptist and Angelo State later in the year in conference action. The Chaps had four wins over ranked foes last season

SCOUTING THE PATRIOTS
- Arlington Baptist plays in the National Christian College Athletics Association 
- Arlington Baptist is 0-4 this season, with two losses coming to St. Edward's and Angelo State of the Lone Star Conference. The Patriots also have a 93-46 loss to Southwest Christian University and a 105-69 loss to St. Thomas. The Pats will also face St. Mary's this season, along with exhibition games against Division-I Sam Houston, Texas A&M-Commerce and Abilene Christian.
- The Patriots qualified for the 2021-22 NCCAA DII National Championships as the fifth seed, falling to Crown College 82-63 and to Emmaus Bible College 95-87 in the elimination game.
- Da'Vione Stafford leads the Patriots with 16 points per game and six rebounds per game. Kaden Ferrell leads Arlington Baptist with 3.0 steals per game

THE SERIES WITH THE PATRIOTS
LCU leads the all-time series 3-0, winning last season's meeting 92-74. The Chaps led just 47-40 at halftime, before a 13-0 run helped LCU pull away for the victory. Both teams shot the lights out of the Rip Griffin Center, with Lubbock Christian shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 40.5 percent from three, while Arlington Baptist shot a blistering 51.9 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from three. LCU has won all three games by an average score of 87-62.

LAST TIME OUT
Nov. 12, 2022 - at Southern Nazarene - It took no. 16 Lubbock Christian 10:39 of game action to rattle home their first field goal of the game in a 66-57 loss to no. 12 Southern Nazarene. 

The Crimson Storm (2-1) opened the game on an 8-0 run, including a three-pointer from Tyler McGhie early. After a made free throw by Rowan Mackenzie, the Storm rattled off ten more points, including back-to-back threes from Manny Dixon and Javon Jackson, to go up 18-1, before a Mackenzie layup at the 10:39 mark of the opening half marked the first field goal of the game for the Chaps (1-2). 

Lubbock Christian went on a small run of their own, outscoring the Storm 7-3, thanks to a pair of jumpers by Mackenzie and a three by Najeeb Muhammad, cutting the SNU lead to 21-10 at the 8:12 mark in the first half.

The defenses held both teams without any points for the next two minutes of game action, before SNU went on another run, a 16-2 run with four made three pointers, two of those by McGhie, and the Storm pulled away to a 37-12 advantage with 1:02 left in the opening frame. Karhan Jones hit a buzzer beating layup, but LCU went into the half down 37-14. 

The 14 points in the first half is the first time LCU has scored under 20 points in a half since scoring 19 in the opening stanza in a 79-61 win over Midwestern State on Mar. 3, 2020. 

The Chaps tried to pull closer thanks to a 7-0 run by Kurt Wegscheider early in the second half, but threes from McGhie and Dixon put SNU ahead 49-21 with 15:26 left in the game. A three from Jackson along with an and-1 layup by Adokiye Iyaye and another three-point basket from Xavier Bryant gave Southern Nazarene their largest lead of the afternoon, going up 57-26 with 9:39 left. 

LCU then began a short 9-0 run of their own, thanks to a three-pointer by Russell Harrison and scores from Wegscheider and Muhammad, cutting the lead down to 57-37 with 4:54 remaining. Iyaye drilled a three-pointer with 3:29 left to push SNU back up 62-39, but another LCU run thanks to baskets by Harrison and Mackenzie cut the lead down to 62-47 with 1:53 left. 

Back-to-back threes by Alec Zambie and Kendall Dow cut the SNU advantage down to 11 with 1:09 left, and Dow scored four more points in the waning seconds, but the deficit was too much to overcome, and Southern Nazarene knocked off LCU 66-57.

It is the first time LCU has lost back-to-back games since Nov. 8-9, 2019 when the Chaps lost to Regis and Colorado School of Mines at the Regis Conference Challenge to open the season. That is also the last time the Chaps have been under-.500.

Mackenzie, Wegscheider and Dow all tallied 11 points for Lubbock Christian. That mark is a new career-high for Dow in his short time in Hub City.

A WIN WOULD
- Put the Chaps back to .500 overall
- Give LCU their fourth straight win over Arlington Baptist
- Be the six straight win for the Chaps in their home opener (last loss - Nov. 11, 2016 - 78-80 vs Regis)

UP NEXT 
The Chaps will take 10 days off for Thanksgiving, before opening conference play at home on Thursday, Dec. 1 against Oklahoma Christian. Tip-off is set for 7:30 PM.