🆚 University of Southern Mississippi
📆 Wednesday – October 28, 2026
⏰ 6 pm CT
🏟️ Historic Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
Houston Christian University wraps up the preseason schedule on Wednesday night when it hosts University of Southern Mississippi in historic Sharp Gymnasium. Tip-off in the third and final exhibition game is slated for 6 pm.
HCU dropped a tough 71-61 decision to Tarleton State University last Saturday afternoon in Stephenville in the second exhibition of the preseason.
Kris Keinys had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Huskies.
Max Alexander had 13 points and five boards while
Chris Mubiru added eight points and five assists for HCU.
The 62nd season of HCU basketball will officially open on November 3 against Louisiana Christian University. That is the first of 32 games on the docket in the third season under Ann and James Sears Bryant Head Men's Basketball Coach
Craig Doty.
HCU will play a 10-game non-conference slate highlighted by four home tilts and two games against Big 12 opponents that sandwich the Christmas break. The grueling 22-game Southland Conference campaign will begin with a quartet of contests in December before a gauntlet of nine straight weekends, 18 games total, that starts on January 2. The SLC Tournament will be held from March 7-10, once again in Lake Charles, Louisiana at the Townsley Law Arena, home of three-time defending champion McNeese.
Doty, the ninth head coach in program history, enters his third season at the helm. The Huskies finished the 2025-26 season with a 12-20 mark overall, going 8-14 in SLC action in the league's first foray into a 22-game slate. HCU finished tied for seventh in the league and advanced to the Southland Tournament for the second straight season.
In addition to the home opener, HCU will host College of Biblical Studies (11/13), Georgia Southern (11/19) and Western Illinois (11/30). The Huskies will face also Western Illinois in a neutral site game with true road contests at South Dakota, ULM, and Louisiana as well as the aforementioned pair of Big 12 opponents. The Huskies travel to Fort Worth to take on TCU on December 22, then return from the Christmas break in Stillwater, Oklahoma on December 29 against Oklahoma State University.
The Huskies open conference action on December 5 at McNeese with the first home conference game coming on December 17 against Nicholls.
The roster will see a major makeover for the third straight season. HCU returns just two players from last year in seniors
D'Aundre Samuels and
Mambourou Mara.
A 6'3 guard from Denver, Colorado, Samuels played in all 32 games last season, averaging 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 33% from the arc. He started 13 games down the stretch, averaging nearly 11 points, four boards and three assists in that stretch.
Mara, a 6'6 forward from Conakry, Guinea, averaged 5.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots, ranking fourth in the SLC. His 47 swats made him the first HCU player to hit 40 or more blocks since 2015-16.
There are 13 new faces dotting the roster with all but two being transfers. Of the 11 transfers, eight have previous Division 1 experience. The 15-man roster boasts players from seven states as well as four countries. The Lone Star state remains the most represented with four players, three hailing from Houston.
Mara is joined by countryman
Ibrahima Sacko, a 6'6 transfer from New Mexico Highlands who previously played at Georgia Tech and New Mexico.
Kris Keinys is a 6'8 forward from Lithuania who transfers in after stints at Minnesota and Pacific while
Malone Gros is a 6'4 freshman guard from France.
Houston native
Bubz Alvarez is a 6'5 transfer wing from South Dakota State while 6'8 transfer forward
Aiden Miller from IU-Indy, hails from Austin.
Chris Mubiru, a 6-4 guard from Philadelphia, joins the Huskies after playing three seasons at conference foe Northwestern State, and is joined at HCU by fellow Philly native
Shawn Simmons II from UMass-Lowell.
Kam Clark is a 6'6 forward from Memphis, Tennessee by way of Queens University and
Esyah Pippa-White is a 6'1 guard hailing from Portland, Oregon and transferring from University of Milwaukee. 6'0 guard
Max Alexander of McPherson, Kansas comes to HCU after two stellar seasons at Northwestern Oklahoma State while
Jonas Nichols is a 6'3 guard from Akron, Ohio who played at Northwest Florida State College last year after a freshman campaign spent at Kent State.
A pair of Houston natives round out the roster in sophomore
Jordan Pape, a 6'6 transfer forward from William Penn and 5'10 freshman guard
King Anderson of Westbury High School and IMG Academy.
HCU opens the campaign on Tuesday against Lousiana Christian University. It will be the 11th meeting overall between the two schools, but the first since 1978 which was a then battle between Houston Baptist University and Louisiana College. Tip-off for the season opener in Sharp Gym is scheduled for 7 pm.
#DawgsUp
