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🆚 East Texas A&M University
📆 Saturday – January 17, 2026
⏰ 3:30 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium - Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
🗒️ Game PROGRAM
🗒️ Game NOTES
🆚 Northwestern State University
📆 Monday – January 19, 2026
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium - Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
🗒️ Game PROGRAM (Sunday)
🗒️ Game NOTES (Sunday)
Houston Christian University begins a season-long four-game homestand on Saturday afternoon when it hosts East Texas A&M University. The first of two meetings this season between the Huskies and Lions is slated for a 3:30 pm tip-off as the second half of a doubleheader with the women, who kick off the day with a 1 pm start. HCU will then host Northwestern State in a Martin Luther King Day tilt Monday evening.
HCU dropped a tough 64-56 decision to Lamar University on Monday night in Neches Arena at the Montagne Center in its last time out. The Huskies used a staunch defensive effort to grab a six-point lead at the break, but the Cardinals returned the favor in the final ten minutes to pull away for the victory.
The Huskies took a 29-23 lead into the intermission, but Lamar came storming back as Robert Lee Jr. scored 11 points over a six-minute span to give the hosts a 41-40 lead. Moments later,
Trent Johnson would connect for three from just in front of the HCU bench as the Huskies retook the lead 48-47 with 10:02 remaining. That would be the last lead of the night for the Huskies, who then went scoreless over the next six minutes as Lamar took control and held on late.
Kylin Green had 15 points to lead the losing effort for HCU.
Demarco Bethea scored 13 points and
Mambourou Mara chipped in 10 while
Demari Williams had eight points and game-highs of seven boards and five assists, which was a new career-high.
Craig Doty, the ninth head coach in program history, is now in his second season at the helm after guiding HCU to a 12-20 overall mark and 9-11 ledger in Southland Conference action in 2024-25. It was announced earlier in the week that
Doty has signed a contract extension through the 2029-30 season.
The Huskies doubled their success rate from the previous season, going from six total wins to 12 and from four victories to nine in conference play, finishing seventh in the league after being picked to finish last. HCU advanced to the Southland Tournament and saw
Bryson Dawkins named All-Conference as just the second player in program history to pick up SLC First Team honors.
Elijah Brooks, who missed the first four games of the season and has not played since returning from the Christmas break, still leads HCU at 12.3 points per night while also chipping in 4.5 boards, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Kylin Green is just behind him at 11.9 points to go with 4.2 boards while leading the Southland Conference at an even five per night. He had a career-high 24 points in the loss over Thanksgiving week to Bellarmine and also registered a career-best 13 assists in the victory over ULM on November 13, the most in a game for HCU since Mike Moss had 13 against Chicago State in 2011. Green flirted with a triple-double in the overtime home loss to Southeastern, finishing with eight points, nine boards and 10 assists, and is averaging 5.1 assists through eight conference games.
Demari Williams had provided a huge spark off the bench as of late before making his first start of the season at UIW. Williams had a then career-best 19 points in the loss at No. 3 Iowa State and then broke it five days later with his first-ever 20-point night, scoring 22 in the loss to UIW. He has scored in double-figures four times in his last six outings, and over his last five games, four of them starts, Williams is leading the Huskies in scoring (14.2) and rebounding (4.2). He posted a career-high five assists in the loss at Lamar.
While putting just two players in double-digit scoring in all games, the Huskies have a quartet of players notching double-figures in conference play.
Elijah Brooks leads the way at 11.5 while Green chips in 11.1 a game. Williams is now at 10.9 per, while
Demarco Bethea averages 10.6 while leading HCU on the backboards at five per in conference action.
The first half of the four-game stay at home sees HCU in its first meetings of the season with East Texas A&M University and Northwestern State University.
East Texas A&M is 7-11 on the season overall and now 2-6 in SLC play after dropping a 61-50 decision at home to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on Monday night. HCU and ETAMU have split 12 meetings all-time, including a 3-3 ledger since the Lions joined the SLC in 2022. Last year HCU won 83-79 in Houston before ETAMU returned the four-point favor with a 63-59 decision in Commerce.
The Lions are led by Jaret von Rosenberg, now in his ninth season on the sidelines in East Texas. ETAMU is led by forward Ronnie Harrison, a 6'8 junior transfer from Tarleton State who leads the Lions in scoring (15.4) and rebounding (6.1). He ups those numbers to 16.1/7.4 in conference action, where he is also hitting 41% from the three-point line.
Damian Garcia, a 6'5 senior transfer guard from Brescia (KY) is the only other Lion in double-digits at 10.4 points while hitting at 36% from the arc. Gianni Hunt, a 6'4 senior transfer from Bethune-Cookman, averages 8.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists, while Noah Pagotto, a 6'8 junior transfer forward from West Texas A&M averages 9.6 points and 6.0 rebounds in league play.
On Monday night, the Huskies will host Northwestern State University in the most played series in program history. The two schools have met 44 times, with NSU leading the series 25-19. Northwestern has won 10 of the last 12 in the series, including a season sweep of the Huskies last year by 64-57 in Houston and again 61-56 in Natchitoches. HCU trails the series 11-6 since joining the Southland in 2013, with HCU's first-ever SLC win coming against the Demons on January 11, 2014, a 98-97 thriller in Sharp Gym.
HCU and NSU were conference foes in the Trans America Athletic Conference, now the Atlantic Sun Conference, from 1979-84. The Demons are led by third-year head man Rick Cabrera and heading into Saturday's road game at UIW are 6-11 overall and 4-4 in league play. The Demons swept a home pair last weekend, both coming at the death. The Demons nipped UTRGV 64-63 on a free throw with one second remaining by Izzy Miles on Monday night. That win was on the heels of a Saturday barn-burner in which the Demons stole a 79-78 win over TAMUCC on a running three-pointer from straightaway by Micah Thomas at the final horn.
Thomas, a 6'0 senior guard, leads NSU at 16.9 points a game, and was a 2025 SLC All-Tournament selection. Miles, a 6'2 junior transfer guard from Tarleton State, averages 10.2 points on 53% shooting from long range. Willie Williams, a 6'6 senior forward, averages 7.4 points and a team-best 8.3 rebounds while hitting at a 58% clip from the floor on the season.
The Huskies are 5-9 all-time in games played on January 17, with their last contest coming in 2018, an 85-69 loss at Southeastern Louisiana. HCU last won on this date in 2015, a 74-73 victory over New Orleans in the very first "Hustlin' Husky" Throwback game.
HCU is 11-8 all-time on January 19. HCU lost to UIW 89-78 in 2023 in it's most recent outing, while the last victory came in 2016, a 72-61 win over Central Arkansas.
Houston Christian University plays Monday night at 7 pm against Northwestern State in an MLK Day showdown in Sharp Gym. HCU is 11-5 all-time on MLK Day, and this is the second time in three years that the two teams will have met on the holiday.
#DawgsUp
