🆚 East Texas A&M University
📆 Monday – January 19, 2026
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium - Houston, Texas
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🗒️ Game PROGRAM
🗒️ Game NOTES
Houston Christian University continues its four-game homestand as it hosts Northwestern State on Monday evening in Sharp Gymnasium. The MLK Day tilt is slated for a 7 pm tip-off and is the second time in three seasons the two schools have met on the holiday.
HCU opened the season-long stay at home by breaking away from a tie game with 10 minutes to play to secure an 81-70 victory over East Texas A&M University on Saturday afternoon in Sharp Gym. The Huskies turned the tables on the Lions, as after trailing by 13 in the first half, the Huskies rallied to lead by as many as 13 down the stretch. HCU held ETAMU to seven points over a decisive nine-minute run late in the final 10 minutes to break away from a 55-all tie and get back in the win column.
HCU trailed by six at the break, but a massive
Mambourou Mara mash on the break put the Huskies up one with 15:26 to play, but the Lions bounced back to take a four-point edge on a Ronnie Harrison three from the top of the key a moment later.
Ryan Bartley hit from long range at the 10:25 mark, knotting the game at 55 to set up a race to the finish line.
Trent Johnson dropped eight straight points, including two triples, the second a side-step three of a dime from
Demarco Bethea at the 7:47 mark that handed the Huskies a 61-59 lead they would never relinquish.
After knocking down 46% from the arc in the first half, the Lions were held to just 29% in the second, and struggled from the charity stripe as well, hitting just 8-16 on the day. HCU blistered the nets in the second stanza to the tune of 59% after just a 36% effort in the opening frame. That including a scorching 62% from the arc to finish at 50% on the night, as the Huskies hit a season-best 11 triples in the best shooting outing of the season from long distance.
Johnson led five players in double-digits for the Huskies with his career-high 19 points off the pine. He went 7-8 from the floor, knocking down 3-4 from long distance while also adding five boards and a career-best six assists.
D'Aundre Samuels had a fantastic all-around night as well, posting 15 points, five boards, six assists and a career-high five steals.
Demari Williams had a dozen points while Mara and Bethea had 10 apiece. Bethea led all players with a game-high eight boards and tied his career-best of three dimes.
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 11.7 points to go with 4.2 boards while sitting second in the Southland Conference at 4.8 assists 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 for the Huskies, first off the bench before making his first start of the season at UIW. Williams had a then career-best 19 points in the loss at then No. 3 Iowa State and 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 five times in his last seven outings, and in those seven games (five starts) he is leading the Huskies in scoring (14.1) while shooting 52.2% from the floor.
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 and Williams has moved into second at an even 11 per. Green scores 10.8, while
Demarco Bethea averages 10.6 while leading HCU on the backboards at 5.3 per in conference action.
The Huskies will host Northwestern State 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 are now 6-12 overall and 4-5 in league play after dropping a heartbreaker at UIW, 76-74 on Saturday. It was the third straight game for the Demons decided on the game's final play, as two Tahj Steveskie free throws with one second remaining capped a 13-point second-half comeback for the Cardinals.
The Demons had 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 last Monday night, a victory on the heels 79-78 win over TAMUCC the previous Saturday that came on a three-pointer at the horn by Micah Thomas.
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 11.1 points on 50% shooting from long range. Willie Williams, a 6'6 senior forward, averages 8.3 points and a team-best 8.3 rebounds while hitting at a 60% clip from the floor on the season. Williams went for a career-high 18 points to go with nine boards in the loss at UIW.
HCU is 11-8 all-time on January 19. An 89-78 loss to UIW 89-78 in 2023 was the most recent outing, while the last victory came in 2016, a 72-61 win over Central Arkansas. The Huskies are 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.
Houston Christian University hits the back-leg of the four-game Sharp stay on Saturday when it meets UTRGV for the first time this season. The homestand concludes next Monday in a rematch with arch-rival UIW next Monday.
#DawgsUp
