NOTE: Due to winter weather impacting the area, the game time for the men's game on Monday against Northwestern State has been changed to an earlier start. Tip-off between the Huskies and Demons at Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches, Louisiana will now be 2 pm instead of 6:30 pm. The game will still be available on ESPN+ as well as Live Stats.
HCU at Northwestern State
Houston Christian University finishes up a road stretch of three-games in eight days when it heads to face Northwestern State University on Monday at Prather Coliseum. The two teams each snapped losing streaks on Saturday by picking up their first conference wins of the season.
HCU is coming off its first conference win of the season on Saturday in Commerce. The Huskies used some fiesty defense down the stretch, holding Texas A&M-Commerce to zero points over the final 3:21 of the game to complete a hard-fought 69-65 victory at The Field
The Lions built near-double-digit leads twice in the first half, only to see the Huskies fight back.
Marcus Greene had a breakaway slam and a three-pointer just before the halftime horn to close the gap to four at the break. In the second half, the two teams continued to go blow-for-blow, and a three-point play by Kwo Agwa with 3:21 to play gave Commerce a 65-62 lead. That would be the end of the scoring for the hosts, as HCU clamped down on defense. A back-door dunk by
Bonke Maring tied things up, and seconds later he would get a snowbird slam off a lead from
Michael Imariagbe, giving the Huskies the lead for good.
Jay Alvarez had career-highs of 24 points and six assists to lead HCU. Maring posted a double-double with 18 points while tying his career-high in caroms with 15, and Greene added 18 points, three boards and four assists as the Huskies snapped a four-game losing streak and picked up their first SLC win of the season.
Alvarez upped his scoring average to a team-best 16 points, and now leads a group of four players in double-figure scoring on the season.
Marcus Greene rebounded from a tough night in Corpus Christi to and is now averaging 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and a team-best 3.3 assists.
Imariagbe sits at 11.3 points per night and pulls down 8.2 rebounds. Maring upped his scoring average to an even 10 points per game, and increased his rebounding back over eight rebounds as well. He also chips in two assists and 1.5 steals per game.
The Huskies will take on a Demons squad that also picked up its first conference win on Saturday, winning handily at home over Incarnate Word 97-71. NSU put five players in double-figures, led by Jimel Lane's 20. Chase Forte had 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, while Duane Posey had 16 poitns and five boards. Braelon Bush and Chris Mubiri added 14 and 11 points, respectively for Northwestern, which improved to 3-13 overall.
On the season, NSU is led by 6'2 junior guard Cliff Davis, who is averaging 15.7 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 43% from the arc on nearly four triples per game. Bush averages 9.7 points and a team-best 3.5 assists, while Forte contributes 7.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists for first-year head man Rick Cabrera.
Monday will be the 41
st meeting between the two schools, with Northwestern State holding a slim 21-19 lead in the series after taking both games last year. The Huskies and Demons were once conference foes in the Trans America Athletic Conference, and since joining the Southland, HCU has split 14 meetings with NSU, including four victories in Natchitoches.
HCU returns home on Saturday afternoon, January 20 to host Lamar University. The game is the second-ever iteration of the "
Darius Lee Classic", first hosted at Rice during it's Classic last season.
#DawgsUp
