HCU at UTRGV
HCU at TAMUCC
- Monday – February 17, 2025 (7 pm)
- Corpus Christi, Texas (American Bank Center)
- 📈 LIVE STATS
- 📺 ESPN+
- 🗒️ GAME NOTES (Updated Sunday)
Houston Christian University heads down to South Texas for a pair of games as they begin the final stretch of the regular season schedule. The Huskies will play four of their final six games away from Sharp Gymnasium, beginning with Saturday afternoon's affair with University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. HCU will head back up the coast to take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday night.
HCU is now 11-14 on the season after splitting the quick two-game homestand. HCU won a battle of short-handed squads on Saturday night, defeating New Orleans 81-68 before falling to Southeastern 69-60 on Monday. SLU is arguably the hottest team in the league other than league-leading McNeese, as the Lions have now won 10 of their last 11 to move into second-place in the league.
The split puts HCU at 8-6 in the nightly turnover of the Southland standings. SLU and Lamar are tied for second at 10-4, while Nicholls is in third alone at 9-5. HCU, TAMUCC and Northwestern State are all tied at 8-6 and in fourth place while UTRGV is 5-9 and tied with Stephen F. Austin and Incarnate Word for the final postseason slot. The top eight teams qualify for the postseason tournament in Lake Charles starting March 9.
HCU built a eight-point lead early in the second half, and led by two, 56-54 with 6:59 to play after a
Bryson Dawkins three-point play. SLU then went on a 13-4 run to end the contest and sneak out of Sharp Gym with a season-series splitting victory.
Julian Mackey had his 10th 20-point outing of the season, as he posted a game-high 25 points to go with five boards, three assists and two steals. Dawkins added 12 points, while
D'Aundre Samuels registered his second straight solid start in place of
Elijah Brooks, who has been out since the second half of the game in Thibodaux against Nicholls. Samuels had 10 points, a season-high seven boards, four assists and a career-high three blocked shots.
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 15.5 points on the campaign. The senior transfer from the Peach State has eclipsed his career-high three times this year, and currently ranks fourth in the SLC in scoring and field goal percentage, third in three-point percentage and second from the free throw line at a 79.6 % clip for the season. Mackey averages 17 a game in SLC play.
Bryson Dawkins is now ninth in the league in scoring at 13.5 points and he ranks second on the club in rebounding, hauling in 4.8 per game. He is second on the club in conference scoring at 16.4, and along with Mackey still ranks as the third-highest scoring duo in the Southland.
Elijah Brooks sits on 9.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game on the season but has missed the past two games plus a half.
D'Aundre Samuels has filled in admirably, earning two straight starting nods and has averaged 12 points, six boards, 3.5 assists, two blocks and two steals in Brooks stead. He is now up to is now up to 7.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists on the season, numbers that rise to 8.3 points, 3.1 boards and 2.0 assists in SLC action.
HCU and University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley have met 28 times all-time and this is the third different conference that the two will have squared off. The Huskies and then Pan American University were charter members of the Trans America Athletic Conference in 1979, and then 30 years later became league foes once again in the Great West Conference from 2009-13 when the Broncs were known as the University of Texas-Pan American.
HCU and UTRGV met for the first time since the 2022-23 season on January 20 as the Huskies won 66-57 in Sharp Gym to close the gap in the all-time series to 16-12 edge in the series. HCU flipped the script midway through the second half, erasing a 10-point deficit by holding the Vaqueros to just seven points over the final 10 minutes. Dawkins had 15 and six boards, Mackey added 14 points and three steals and
Demari Williams established a new career-high with 14 points to go with five boards, two dimes and two pilfers.
Led by first-year head coach Kahil Fennell, UTRGV is now 13-12 on the season and boasts a quartet of players in double-figure scoring and one more just under 10 for a team that is second in the league in scoring at 77.1 points per outing. 6'4 Alcorn State grad transfer DK Thorn leads UTRGV at 12.1 points, while 6'5 junior Howie Fleming Jr. averages 11.2 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds. Cliff Davis, a 6'2 senior transfer guard from Northwestern State averages 11.1 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per night, while 6'3 DePaul transfer guard K.T. Raimey chips in 10.5 points an outing to round out group.
Saturday evening will be the 10th game all-time on February 15. The Huskies are 4-5 on this date, with the last outing coming in 2016, a 79-78 win over Lamar. As a side note, the Huskies are 7-6 when playing on Valentine's Day, but haven't played on that date since 2018 when it won at Northwestern State 77-70.
A trip back up the coast for HCU comes Monday night as the Huskies face Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi at the American Bank Center. The two teams have now met 34 times with TAMUCC leading the series 23-11 after HCU's 76-72 victory on January 20 in Sharp Gymnasium.
The Huskies never trailed in the game, but had to weather a huge second-half storm as the Islanders cut a double-digit deficit to three points on four different occasisons in the final 1:25, only to have HCU go 9-12 from the free-throw line, including 6-8 from
Elijah Brooks, to seal the victory. The Huskies put four players in double-digits in the game, led by Mackey with 19.
Jim Shaw is in his second season as head coach and fourth overall on the island. The 'Ders enter the weekend at 15-11 overall and 8-6 in league play, but have lost five of their last seven after a 6-1 start. TAMUCC leads the league in scoring at 77.9 points per game, led by 6'8 All-SLC forward Garry Clark, who is averaging 14.6 points and a team-high 7.8 boards. Freshman guard Isaac Williams scores 10.8 points and leads the team at 3.7 assists, while 6'8 junior forward Owen Dease chips in 10 points and 4.7 boards.
February 17 has seen HCU play a total of 15 games with a 7-8 record. The Huskies last played on this date last season, falling on a buzzer-beating three-pointer at Southeastern 81-78. The last win came in 2006, when HCU routed then-rival Texas Wesleyan 69-45 in Sharp Gym.
HCU will return to Sharp for its final two home games of the season on February 22 and 24. The Saturday afternoon tilt against Lamar will be the annual "Hustlin' Husky" throwback game followed by "Senior Night" against SFA the following Monday evening. The final two games of the regular season take the Huskies to Northwestern State and East Texas A&M.
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