LAS VEGAS, Nev. - For the first time this season, the Lubbock Christian men's basketball team takes on a top-five opponent, facing no. 4/5 West Liberty in the first game of the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic on Saturday, Dec. 17 in Las Vegas, Nev. 

No.4/5 West Liberty (9-0) vs Lubbock Christian (5-3)
Saturday, Dec. 17 - 7:45 PM (CT)/5:45 PM (PT)
Las Vegas Nev. - South Point Arena

FOLLOW ALONG
The entire South Point Holiday Hoops Classic will be streamed on FloHoops for a small fee. Fans can sign up for FloHoops here . On Sunday, Dec. 17, the Chaps' contest against Le Moyne College will also feature a live radio stream for free, courtesy of Fox Sports 1490 AM in Syracuse, N.Y. That stream is available here. For those who want to follow along with live stats, free links to every single game at the South Point Arena are available here.

NEED TO KNOW
- LCU is coming off a 74-67 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville. As a team, LCU went 11-for-18 from three, shooting 61.1 percent from beyond the arc, including going 6-for-8 from deep in the second half (75.0 percent).
- Rowan Mackenzie scored 26 points and hauled in seven rebounds. It is the third game this season Mackenzie has scored 25+ points in a game
- Najeeb Muhammad flirted with a double-double, with nine points and a season-high eight assists. Muhammad also had four rebounds.
- LCU is 2-0 all-time at the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic. The Chaps defeated Rollins and Western Washington at last year's event.
No. 4/5 West Liberty is 9-0 and coming off a 91-89 win over no. 21 West Virginia State. The Hilltoppers went 29-3 last season, advancing to the Atlantic Regional Championship

VIVA LAS VEGAS
For the second straight season, the Lubbock Christian men's basketball team will head to Las Vegas, Nev. for the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic. The Chaps went 2-0 at the 2021 edition of the tournament, defeating Rollins College 77-60 thanks to 20 points and 10 rebounds from Parker Hicks. The Chaparrals closed out the tournament with an 84-74 win over Western Washington, as Lloyd Daniels scored 25 points and dished out five assists.

ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT
This season, Rowan Mackenzie is leading the Chaps in scoring, averaging 19.6 points per game, third in the LSC. 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. For his impressive play against the Orediggers, Mackenzie earned his first career LSC Offensive Player of the Week Honors on Nov. 14, 2022. 
Mackenzie has also been a force defensively, setting a career-high in steals in back-to-back games, picking up four steals against Colorado Mines and five steals against Southern Nazarene. 
Mackenzie scored 30 points for the second time this season against Oklahoma Christian, going 9-for-9 from the free throw line and 3-for-5 from three-point land. The junior also hauled in four rebounds and handed out four assists.
Mackenzie ranks second in the LSC in field goal percentage, shooting 55.7 percent from the field so far this season. He also leads the team in rebounds with 5.8 per game.

NOBODY BEATS AARON
Moving into the starting lineup this season, 2021-22 LSC All-Freshman Team member Aaron Gonzales has been a sharpshooter for the Chaps, shooting 46.2 percent from three. After averaging 3.5 points per game last season, Gonzales has averaged 9.4 points per game, starting in all eight contests for Lubbock Christian.
Gonzales scored a career-high 17 points against Arlington Baptist on Nov. 21, draining five shots from beyond the arc. The sophomore flirted with his first career double-double on Dec. 3 against Arkansas Fort Smith, scoring 13 points and pulling down a career-best nine rebounds to lead LCU.

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.

WOKE UP FEELING DANGER RUSS
Russell Harrison tied his career-high in points from his lone season at Claredon College (2019-2020) with 33 points on Dec. 3 against Arkansas Fort Smith. Harrison was automatic from beyond the mark, making six three-pointers in the game, including four in a row in the second half. The grad transfer finished the night shooting 52.1 percent from the field. Harrison stuffed the stat sheet in that game, pulling in eight rebounds, had two assists, and blocked one shot while coming away with one steal. 
Harrison is averaging 13.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, after scoring 17 points against Texas A&M-Kingsville, his third straight game finishing in double figures.

SLOW STARTS, BIG FINISHES
Lubbock Christian has made a habit of starting slow but finishing the second half of games strong. Against UAFS, the Chaps shot 40.7 percent in the first half from the field and 18.8 from three. In the second stanza, LCU opened the final 20 minutes of the game making six straight threes on an 18-2 run. The Chaps shot 51.2 percent in the second half against the Lions and 44.4 percent from three.
Against Oklahoma Christian, LCU opened a game shooting less than 15 percent from the floor, shooting just 1-for-9 (11 percent) in the first 8:03 of the game and going down 19-6 against the Eagles. Lubbock Christian finished the second half of that game on a 17-6 run, shooting 45 percent from the floor and 41.6 percent from beyond the arc in the both the second half and overtime period of the game.

MAKE THEM EARN IT
Opponents have struggled to score against the Chaps this season, averaging just 62.9 points per game against Lubbock Christian. So far this season, four opponents that LCU has faced have scored their lowest point total in a game this season. Oklahoma Christian entered the game against Lubbock Christian with the best scoring offense in the LSC at 81.8 points per game, but the Chap defense held the Eagles to a season-low 68 points. Against Arkansas Fort Smith, the Chaps held the conference's leading scorer Payton Brown (22.1 PPG) to 14 points and just 2-for-9 from three. The mark is the second-best scoring defense in the Lone Star Conference and 21st best in Division-II.

SCOUTING THE HILLTOPPERS
- West Liberty enters the game with a 9-0 record and ranked no.4/5 in the national polls. The Hilltoppers defeated conference foe no. 21 West Virginia State 91-89 on Dec. 10 thanks to a last second shot by Bryce Butler.
- The Hilltoppers are the third-highest scoring offense in all of Division-II basketball, averaging 100.7 points per game. That mark would rank higher than any scoring average at the Division-I level, as Arizona leads with 91.2 points per game. West Liberty has eclipsed the century mark four times this season, including a 121-54 win over West Virginia Wesleyan College. The Toppers also average 12.7 made three-pointers per game, the highest in all of Division-II basketball. The team's 23.4 assists per game and an impressive assists-to-turnover ratio of 2.07 both lead all of Division-II.
- West Liberty is also talented on the defensive end, forcing 20.67 turnovers a game, the second-most in Division-II. The Hilltoppers 12.8 steals per game ranks third in Division-II, with Alek West's 25 steals this season ranking fifth in the nation.
- Reigning MEC and NCAA Atlantic Region Player of the Year Bryce Bulter leads the Hilltoppers in scoring, averaging 23.7 points per game, the fourth-best scoring average in the country. His 93 made field goals is the most of any Divison-II basketball player, and would rank third in Division-I. Butler is shooting 62.0 percent from the field, the best in the Mountain East Conference and 22nd in the nation.
- After leading his alma mater to a 29-3 record and No. 2 ranking in the final NCAA Division II coaches' poll during the 2021-22 season, Ben Howlett heads into his sixth season at the Hilltopper helm with a sparkling 128-21 (.859) winning percentage – tops among all NCAA Division II men's coaches. Howlett is coming off his second MEC Coach of the Year Award after seeing his 2021-22 powerhouse extend a number of impressive streaks. The Black and Gold rolled to their fifth straight MEC regular season title and won their fifth consecutive NCAA Division II scoring title

THE SERIES WITH THE HILLTOPPERS
The contest against West Liberty marks the first time the Chaps have faced a team from the Mountain East Conference. West Liberty has never played a team from the Lone Star Conference, but is 0-1 all-time against teams from the NCAA South Central Region, falling to MSU Denver 83-76 at the 2013 NCAA Division II Final Four. 

LAST TIME OUT
Dec, 10, 2022 - at Texas A&M-Kingsville - Lubbock Christian shot 59.5 percent from the field and 61.1 percent from beyond the arc and held off a late 17-19 run by Texas A&M-Kingsville to earn their first-ever win in Kingsville, knocking off the Javelinas 74-67 on Saturday, Dec. 10.
As a team, LCU went 11-for-18 from three, shooting 61.1 percent from beyond the arc, including going 6-for-8 from deep in the second half (75.0 percent). That mark is the highest for the Chaps since LCU shot 63.6 percent from three (7-for-11) on Dec. 6, 2018 in a 68-65 win over West Texas A&M. 
Mackenzie scored at least 25 points for the third time this season, scoring 26 points and hauling in seven rebounds. Mackenzie shot 70 percent from the floor (7-for-10) and 81.8 percent (9-for-11) from the free throw line. The junior also dished out four assists.
Muhammad set a season high for assists for the second straight game, handing out a whopping eight assists  most by any Chap player in a game this season.

A WIN WOULD
- Be the Chaps' first win over a top-five ranked team since Nov. 21, 2022 (defeated no. 1/4 West Texas A&M 73-66)
- Be the first LCU win over a team from the eastern time zone since Dec. 17, 2021 (defeated Rollins College 77-60)
- Be the Chaps' first win over a ranked team this season (lost 66-57 to no. 12 Southern Nazarene on Nov. 19)

UP NEXT
The Chaps close out the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic with their final nonconference game of the season, facing Le Moyne College on Sunday, Dec. 18. Tip-off is set for 5:30 PM (CT).