HCU at LAMAR
HCU at STEPHEN F. AUSTIN
- Monday – January 6, 2025 (6:30 pm)
- Nacogdoches, Texas (William R. Johnson Coliseum)
- 📈 LIVE STATS
- 📺 ESPN+
- 🗒️ GAME NOTES (Updated Sunday)
Houston Christian University returns to the hardwood after a nearly two-week break, resuming Southland Conference play with a pair of games on the road. The Huskies will start the new year in the Golden Triangle, traveling to Beaumont to take on Lamar University on Saturday before hiking up to the Piney Woods for a Monday night skirmish in Nacogdoches against Stephen F. Austin State University.
HCU is now 4-9 overall on the season and has lost two in a row after claiming its first road win of the year on December 17. The Huskies played all three of their final games before the break on the road within a span of six days, defeating ULM 74-68 before dropping games at No. 12 Texas A&M and North Texas. Before the last two games, the previous seven had all been decided by seven points or less.
The Huskies are one of four teams with a 1-1 record sitting middle of the table in the Southland. Lamar is one of the top four with a 2-0 mark in the league, while SFA is in the early bottom pack at 0-2. HCU earned a split the Southland opening weekend on December 5 and 7, defeating East Texas A&M 83-79 before falling 64-57 to Northwestern State. It is the ninth time in 12 Southland seasons for the Huskies to begin play with at least a split of the first pair of games.
HCU is led by first-year head coach
Craig Doty, who was hired as the ninth head coach in school history last March as the program is now in its 59th season. Doty brings 12 years of head coaching experience to the HCU sidelines, having coached on the NJCAA, NAIA and NCAA Division II levels while capturing three national titles along the way.
Julian Mackey continues to pace the Huskies in scoring, sitting at 14.5 points overall as well as through two games of conference play. He had a career-high night in HCU's last victory at ULM, as he knocked down a single-game best six three-pointers en route to a career-best 32 points. The game against the Warhawks finished off a stretch of four 20-point games over a five-game span for Mackey, who has now eclipsed his career-high three times this season.
Bryson Dawkins is second on the club at 11.6 points per game and also averages 3.6 rebounds.
Elijah Brooks is averaging a shade under 10 at 9.9 points to go with 4.1 rebounds per outing, second on the team just behind
Peyton Rogers' 4.5 caroms per.
D'Aundre Samuels averages 6.2 points per game off the bench while
Trent Johnson averages 5.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and a team-best 1.3 steals per game.
Through two conference games, Dawkins is averaging 17.5 points to top the squad, followed by the aforementioned Mackey at 14.5. Brooks sits at 9.5 and Johnson at 7.5 per game while Samuels and
Demari Williams each average six per contest.
The game at Lamar represents the second shortest road trip of the season for HCU, traveling just under 100 miles east to Beaumont. HCU and Lamar have met 26 times with the Cardinals holding a 17-9 lead. That margin is just 12-9 in conference play, as the two schools have split the season series six times since 2013-14. The Huskies last won at the Montagne Center in 2017, winning 75-68.
Lamar is helmed by 43-year coaching veteran Alvin Brooks, who is now in his fourth year at the helm of his alma mater. Brooks played his final two collegiate seasons with the Cardinals before embarking on his coaching career in 1981 as an assistant at Lamar.
The Cardinals are 7-6 overall on the season and 2-0 in SLC play after sweeping the South Texas two-step at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UTRGV. Lamar returned to action on Monday with an 82-65 win in Beaumonthome win over Texas A&M-San Antonio. LU is led by 6'1 transfer guard Alexander Marmolejos (15.3 ppg) and 6'10 transfer post Andrew Holifield (11.3 ppg / 6.5 rpg / 1.9 blks), each of whom has earned Player of the Week honors this season.
On Monday the Huskies make the trek to East Texas to take on SFA for the first time since 2019, as the Lumberjacks are back in the Southland after spending the past three years in the WAC. The Jacks lead the all-time series with HCU 19-1 with the only win for the Huskies coming in 1979, a 70-67 win in Sharp Gym.
Kyle Keller roams the sidelines for SFA, now in his ninth season at the helm. SFA returned to action on New Year's Eve with a tough 62-57 win at Abilene Christian to improve to 7-6 on the season and will host Incarnate Word on Saturday evening to resume conference action. The Jacks lost both ends of Southland Conference opening weekend in early December, falling by three at UTRGV and then by 19 at Corpus.
SFA places three players in double-figures nightly. Matt Hayman, a 6'5 senior wing, averages 12.8 points to lead the club and Keon Thompson, a 6'1 transfer guard from UMass is just behind at 12.6 points. Each average a team-best 2.6 assists per game while senior forward Nana Antwi-Boasiako a 6'9 hometown product, averages 10.0 points and a team-best 7.3 caroms.
The Huskies are even-steven all-time in games played on both dates, going 8-8 on January 4 and posting a 9-9 mark on January 6. HCU last played on January 4 in 2014, an 86-69 defeat at Central Arkansas with its last victory coming in 2006, a 68-65 win over Huston-Tillotson College. HCU last played on January 6 during its final season in the NAIA, getting a 75-61 victory over Bacone College.
A return to Sharp Gym comes on January 11, when a four-game homestand ensues beginning with rival University of the Incarnate Word as part of a Saturday twin-bill with the women. HCU will then host defending Southland champ McNeese on Monday the 13th before finishing the stretch hosting UTRGV and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi the following weekend.
#DawgsUp
