🆚 Stephen F. Austin State University
📆 Saturday – February 28, 2026
⏰ 3:30 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
🗒️ Game NOTES
🗒️ Game PROGRAM
🆚 Lamar University
📆 Monday – March 2, 2026
⏰ 7:30 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
🗒️ Game NOTES (Sunday)
🗒️ Game PROGRAM (Sunday)
Houston Christian University returns to Sharp Gymnasium for the final weekend of the regular season, facing league-leading Stephen F. Austin State University on Saturday before the regular season finale on Monday against Lamar University. The Huskies enter the final two games of the campaign sitting in a tie with Lamar for the eighth and final spot in the Southland Conference Tournament field.
HCU managed a split of its final road swing of the regular season. After losing to Northwestern State on Saturday in Natchitoches, the Huskies raced out to a 21-point second-half lead in Commerce before withstanding a a furious rally over the last 10 minutes and claiming a 69-68 victory over East Texas A&M University on Monday evening.
Leading by one, the Huskies held the Lions to just two points over the final 5:48 of the first half, part of an 18-8 run over the final eight minutes to take a 36-23 lead at the break. An offensive stickback by
D'Aundre Samuels just over two minutes into the second stanza gave HCU a 16-point lead, 40-24. Moments later
Ryan Bartley connected from deep, pushing the Huskies advantage to 17 as the 16-minute media commenced.
Demarco Bethea grabbed an offensive board and converted and then two free throws by
Mambourou Mara pushed HCU to a 19-point lead with 13:23 to go. Moments later, Mara cleaned up another missed layup and the Huskies led by 21 with 9:52 to play. The Lions came roaring back, cutting the lead to 13 at the under-eight, 56-43 and then to 10 on a Damian Garcia three with 4:26 to go. Coming out of the final media, ETAMU scored eight straight in a minute's time, with back-to-back three's from Vinny Sigona and Gianni Hunt cutting the lead to two with 2:27 left.
Mara and
Demari Williams then had strong finishes at the rim to push HCU back up by four before another three-ball by Hunt cut the deficit to one, 67-66 with 33 seconds on the clock.
D'Aundre Samuels hit two free throws as did Hunt, leaving it at a one-point game.
Kylin Green was fouled with six seconds to go, and after he missed the front end, Mara made a save on the baseline, passing the offensive board out to
Trent Johnson and the clock expired.
Five Huskies recorded double-figures, led by Bethea, who tied his career-high with 15 to go with a game-high nine boards, five offensive.
D'Aundre Samuels and
Mambourou Mara each had 13, with Mara snaring seven boards and getting a career-high five steals.
Demari Williams had 10 and six caroms and
Ryan Bartley added 10 points as well.
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 in early December 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.
The Huskies are now 11-18 on the season and 7-13 in conference play and sit in the tie with Lamar for the final spot in the postseason field. The Huskies face league-leading SFA on Saturday while the Cardinals battle the league's other Cardinals of Incarnate Word in San Antonio. SFA will head to the Alamo City to face UIW on Monday while HCU and Lamar face off in Houston.
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 10.2 points to go with 3.9 boards and 4.6 assists per night. The 13 assists by Green against ULM (11/13) were the most in a game for HCU since Mike Moss had 13 vs. Chicago State in 2011 and he currently third in the SLC in assists per game. He had his third double-digit assist effort of the season with 10 along with the game-winning basket with 4.3 seconds remaining in the 82-80 win over Northwestern State (1/19), becoming the first HCU player with three such outings in a season since Ricky Bennett in 2003-04.
Kylin Green had six dimes vs. UIW (1/27) putting him at 104 to become just the second player to hit the century mark in a single-season in the last six years. He is just the fifth player to go over 120 in a season since the Huskies returned to Division I in 2007-08, and his 132 with two games left in the regular season is the most in a single-season since Braxton Bonds had 158 total and averaged 5.1 during the 2017-18 campaign.
Since the Christmas break,
Demari Williams has provided a huge spark for the Huskies, first off the bench before then making his first start of the season at UIW. He has scored in double-figures 11 times in the 16 games since returning from the holiday. In those 16 games (14 starts) Williams is one of just two HCU players averaging double-digits, leading the Huskies in scoring (13.1 ppg) while shooting 46% from the floor, 35% from deep and 80% from the charity stripe. The redshirt junior from Fulshear is averaging a team-best 11.8 ppg as well as 3.9 rebounds in conference action.
Williams had a then career-best 19 points in the loss at then No. 3 Iowa State in the first game back (Dec. 29) and broke it five days later with his first-ever 20-point night, scoring 22 in the loss to UIW (1/3). That high then fell as well in the homestand finale, as Williams led a huge rally against UIW (1/27) with his 24 points on a career-best 13-14 from the free throw line. Williams averaged 23 points and six rebounds on 15-23 (65%) shooting from the field in the two regular-season games against UIW.
The Huskies have two players in double-figures overall on the season as Williams dipped back down under 10 following the loss at Northwestern State. He is now at 9.8 following his run over the last two months. In conference action, the Huskies do have three players in double-figures with Williams (11.8) sitting just ahead of
Elijah Brooks (11.5) for the team lead while
Demarco Bethea averages 10.7 and also leads HCU on the backboards at 5.8 per in conference action. Bethea is one of six players averaging 3.6 or more caroms in SLC play.
Ryan Bartley (9.4), Green (9.2) and
D'Aundre Samuels (8.8) give the Huskies six players at eight points or more in Southland action with
Trent Johnson at tick back at 7.9 per.
One week after scoring a career-best 15 points against Nicholls (2/16)
Demarco Bethea returned to East Texas A&M for the first time since transferring from there, and matched that output in the Huskies 69-68 victory (2/23). He had previously set and matched his career-best of 14 three separate times this season. He recorded his first-ever double-double with 14 points and a career-high 10 rebounds against UTRGV (1/24).
Mambourou Mara has 12 games this season with two or more blocks, including three games with three and two outings with his career-high of four (Southern Arkansas / ULM). He is currently fourth in the Southland in blocks with 1.4 per game. Mara had two blocks at East Texas A&M (2/23) to give him 40 on the season, the first HCU player to hit 40 since Isaiah Robinson had 57 in 2015-16 and Josh Ibarra had 55 in 2014-15. Mara, who set a career-high with three steals against ETAMU (1/17), broke that mark with five against the Lions in teh 69-68 win in Commerce (2/23).
D'Aundre Samuels has come on over the past 13 games, starting 12 of those games. In that stretch, he is averaging 11 points, 4.0 caroms and 2.4 assists. On the four-game homestand (Jan 17-27), he averaged 11 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals, then upped his scoring to 12.8 on the four-game road trip. He had 15 points and the game-winning runner in the win over UNO (2/14).
Ryan Bartley shot 9-19 from the arc on the four-game road stretch, including matching his career-best with four at TAMUCC on January 31. Bartley is now 18-45 (40%) from long distance over his last 13 games.
On February 12,
Trent Johnson was selected to the
E*TRADE Men's 3-Point contest "watch list" as part of 37th annual State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Friday, April 3. The event will be broadcast nationally on ESPN on Sunday (April 5). Johnson is currently averaging 8.3 points per game for the Huskies while knocking down 41.4% of his tries from long distance. He is 18th in the Southland Conference in three-pointers per game at 1.7 and is also hitting a robust 83.6% from the free throw line.
SFA comes into Saturday's game at 25-4 overall and 18-2 in the league following Monday night's home loss to New Orleans. The Lumberjacks are clinging to the top spot in the standings, just one game ahead of McNeese with two games to play. Those two teams split their series during the regular season, each winning at home.
The Lumberjacks and Huskies will be meeting for the 24th time overall, with SFA leading the series 20-3. The Huskies won both meetings last year before the Jacks claimed the first game of the pair this year on January 10. SFA jumped out to a 43-28 lead at the break and never looked back in
defeating HCU 85-67 in Nacogdoches.
Matt Braeuer is in his first season at the helm in the Piney Woods, guiding a team that ranks second in scoring (77.5) and first in defense (66.1). The Jacks rank second in three-point defense (29.8%) and third in overall field goal defense (41.7%).
Keon Thompson, a 6'1 senior guard, leads the charge for the Jacks. The five-time SLC Player of the Week averages 18.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in conference action. Lateef Patrick, a 6'2 junior guard, averages a shade under 15 points per, while Jerald Colonel, a 6'9 senior forward, paces the team with 7.2 rebounds per game and leads the Southland in blocked shots at 2.5 per game overall.
The Huskies have a 7-5 record in games played on February 28. The last outing came in 2018 in an 83-71 defeat at Incarnate Word, while the most recent win came in 2005, a 95-91 win in Tyler over Texas College.
The date also holds historical significance, as the Huskies set the all-time single-game scoring mark on this date in 2002, a 148-98 win over Paul Quinn College in the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament. The Huskies led 58-44 at the half before erupting for 90 points in the second frame, led by 33 points from Charles Fordjour and 27 from Josh Brian, both off the bench.
Lamar is led by fifth-year head coach Alvin Brooks, now in his 44th season overall as a collegiate coach. The Cardinals lead the all-time series with HCU 22-11 with a 15-9 edge in Southland play following a
64-56 win in Beaumont on January 12.
The Cardinals (12-17 | 7-13 SLC prior to Saturday) are paced by 6'2 junior guard Robert Lee Jr. who averages 16.2 points and 43% shooting from the three-point line in conference action. He had a career-high 31 points to go with seven boards in the earlier win over HCU in January, and has six 20-point outings in conference play.
Braden East, a 6'9 sophomore forward, averages 13 points and 9.7 boards in league action, and his 9.1 boards average on the season paces the Southland. Andrew Holifield, a 6'10 senior forward, averages 11.7 points, 4.1 boards and is third in the Southland in blocked shots, swatting 1.7 per game.
The Huskies are 5-9 all-time on March 2, last playing last year in a 98-85 loss in the season finale to East Texas A&M at home. HCU last won on this date in 2019, an 86-65 rout of McNeese in Sharp Gym.
Both of the final games of the regular season will be doubleheaders with the women. Saturday's game is slated to start at 3:30 pm and the Monday night affair being a tad later tip-time than normal at 7:30 pm. Saturday's game is the annual "Hustlin' Husky" Throwback game, while HCU will honor its six outgoing seniors prior to Monday night's action.
The 2026 Southland Conference Tournament is set to run from March 8-11, hosted by McNeese at the Townsley Law Arena in Lake Charles, Louisiana. HCU will know its fate on Monday pending results from around the league.
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