🆚 Southern Arkansas University
📆 Monday, November 3, 2025
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
🗒️ GAME PROGRAM
Houston Christian University opens the 2025-26 campaign on Monday night when it hosts Southern Arkansas University at Sharp Gym. Tip-off for the second season under Ann and James Sears Bryant Head Men's Basketball Coach
Craig Doty is slated for 7 pm.
The 60th season of HCU basketball sees a 31-game slate on tap, with Southland Conference action bumping up to 22 total games. The Huskies will play 14 times on the home hardwood, three of those coming in the first two-and-a-half weeks of the season.
Doty, the ninth head coach in program history, enters his second season at the helm after a successful debut season in 2024-25. HCU doubled its win total from the previous year, going from six total wins to 12 and from four to nine in conference play, finishing the season 12-20 overall and 9-11 in SLC action. Picked to finish last in the league, the Huskies ended in seventh and advanced to the Southland Tournament and
Bryson Dawkins became just the second player in program history to pick up SLC First Team honors.
The roster will see a major makeover for the second straight season. After turning the roster over with 11 new players last year, the Huskies add 10 this season as just five (
Elijah Brooks,
Trent Johnson,
Ahjany Lee,
D'Aundre Samuels and
Demari Williams) remain from the 2024-25 roster.
Of the 10 newcomers, nine are transfers including four with previous D1 experience and three coming from D2. There is but one underclassman on the roster in freshman
Brennen Byrd.
The 15-man roster for HCU boasts players from eight states as well as Canada (
Trent Johnson) and Guinea (
Mambourou Mara). The Lone Star state remains the most represented with six players: Williams, Byrd,
Kylin Green,
Nehikhare Igiehon,
Caleb Gaston,
Bryson Monroe.
After losing its top two scorers and leading rebounded from a year ago, the Huskies will look to the returning core to make immediate impacts, with seniors
Elijah Brooks and
Trent Johnson expected to lead that charge.
Brooks, a transfer from North Dakota who was Doty's first signee at HCU, started 27 games while playing 27.8 minutes per game. The 6'3 senior guard from Topeka, Kansas averaged 9.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game, which all represented career-bests, while pacing the team with his 47.8% from the field on the season.
Now a graduate student, Johnson made 28 starts in 30 appearances and averaged 27.5 minutes per game. The 6-6 forward from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada transferred to HCU following stints at Idaho State and Midland College and established new single-season career-highs in points per game (5.7), rebounds (4.1) assists (1.6) and steals (1.2).
Juniors Williams and Samuels return for their second year with the Huskies, while
Ahjany Lee will be hitting the Sharp Gym floor for the first time after sitting out last season following preseason knee-surgery.
Williams, a 6-5 redshirt junior forward from Fulshear, was putting up solid, career-high numbers before his season was cut short in January due to injury. He averaged 5.7 points and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 85% from the charity stripe in 19 games mostly off the bench. Samuels, a 6-2 junior guard from Denver, was one of three players to see action in all 32 games for the Huskies last year, averaging 7.2 points and 2.8 assists in just over 16 minutes per contest off the pine.
HCU has nine transfers on the roster, a group featuring four players with prior Division 1 experience and just one underclassmen.
Leading the newcomers are transfers
Kylin Green and
Ryan Bartley.
Green, a 6'0 senior guard from Lewisville, transfers in from Utah Valley where he helped lead the Wolverines to the WAC regular season title and an NIT berth. He made 33 appearances off the bench for UVU averaging 4.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists while shooting 42.9% from the arc. Bartley, a 6'6 graduate forward from Decatur, Illinois, comes to HCU from Malone University, where he spent his senior season after three years at Mount Mercy. Bartley averaged 14.6 points and 3.3 rebounds for the Pioneers while shooting 40% from the three-point line and 83% from the charity stripe.
Other notable additions for the Huskies are seniors
Demarco Bethea,
Obadiah Curtis and
Nehikhare Igiehon and junior
Mambourou Mara.
Bethea hits Sharp Gym for his final season after spending last season at conference foe East Texas A&M. The 6'7 forward from Sellers, South Carolina made 11 starts in 21 outings for the Lions and was third on the team in scoring (6.8 ppg) and second in rebounding (4.2 rpg). Curtis joins the Huskies after playing 26 games at Eastern Illinois last year. The 6'4 guard from Fresno averaged 6.6 points and 2.8 rebounds with 10 double-digit scoring games for the Panthers.
Igiehon is a transfer from Henderson State, where the 6'7 forward from Austin led the Reddies in scoring (15.8), rebounding (6.9) and blocked shots (1.1) while starting all 30 contests. Mara was a former teammate of
Elijah Brooks at North Dakota and the 6'6 forward from Conakry, Guinea made 30 appearances and 16 starts for UND.
Monday night will be just the fifth meeting all-time between HCU and Southern Arkansas, with the Huskies holding a 3-1 lead in the series. All four previous matches occurred during home-and-home series in consecutive seasons.
HCU took both meetings in 1997-98, winning 106-96 in overtime in Houston and completing the sweep with a 91-65 win in Magnolia. In 1998-99, the two teams split the series, each capturing victory on the other's home court as the Huskies won in Arkansas 76-68 before SAU returned the favor in Sharp Gym, winning 83-77.
SAU is in its second year under Mark Rutledge, who led the Muleriders to a 12-16 mark overall and 9-13 mark in the Great American Conference. Only five players remain from a year ago, as the team lost its top six scorers. Nevi Tell, a 5'9 hometown guard is the top returner, as he averaged 3.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists while making 20 starts in 28 appearances.
This is the third earliest game to open a season in program history, and just the second time to play on November 3. The Huskies defeated Trinity University 67-62 to kick off the 2007-08 campaign, which was the first game of the transition back to NCAA Division 1. The earliest the Huskies have ever opened a season was on Halloween Night, October 31 of 1995, when it defeated Faith Baptist College 114-81 in Sharp Gym. HCU defeated Dallas Baptist 90-77 on November 2 in the season opener of its final NAIA season of 2006-07.
Following Monday's opener, the Huskies will head to the West Coast over the weekend, hitting the Golden State for a Saturday night matchup with UC San Diego. It will be the first-ever meeting with the Tritons and is the first of two trips on the schedule to the opposite coasts, as HCU will embark on a three-game trip to the East Coast later at Thanksgiving.
The Huskies will return home on November 13 when it hosts University of Louisiana-Monroe. The first Southland action hits early, as HCU will slide on over to the Big Easy for the conference opener on December 6 in a tilt at the University of New Orleans.
#DawgsUp
