🆚 Lamar University
📆 Monday – March 2, 2026
⏰ 7:30 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
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🗒️ Game NOTES
🗒️ Game PROGRAM
Houston Christian University host Lamar University for "Senior Night" on Monday night in Sharp Gym to close out the 2025-26 regular season campaign. The Huskies and Cardinals are currently tied with UIW for the eighth and final spot in the Southland Conference Tournament field with both needing a win to keep their hopes alive.
HCU dropped a 77-56 decision to Stephen F. Austin State University on Saturday afternoon in the annual
"Hustlin' Husky" Throwback game in Sharp Gymnasium. The Lumberjacks jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never looked back, taking a commanding 42-16 lead at the break.
HCU came out of the intermission with a quick six points on two scores from
Demari Williams and a pair of charity shots from
Mambourou Mara, cutting the deficit to 20, 42-22 just over a minute into the second session. The Lumberjacks would respond with a 10-3 run to push the lead back out. The Huskies would end up outscoring the Jacks by five in the second half, but could never really get over the hump, as SFA matched each burst by the hosts. A jump-hook by
Ahjany Lee sliced the disadvantage to 18, 70-52 with three minutes to go, but that was as close as the Huskies would get the rest of the way.
It was the first game of the season for the Huskies to not have a player in double-digits.
Demari Williams and
Demarco Bethea led the HCU effort with nine points each, while
Kylin Green and
Ahjany Lee added eight each, a season-high for Lee.
Trent Johnson had seven points and led HCU with eight boards and five assists.
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.
Now 11-19 overall and 7-14 in conference play, the Huskies are tied with Lamar and Incarnate Word for the final spot in the postseason field. After defeating Lamar 72-60 on Saturday night, UIW hosts SFA on Monday, needing a win to sustain their chance at postseason action.
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 10.1 points to go with 3.9 boards and 4.5 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 136 with a game 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 17 games since returning from the holiday. In those 17 games (15 starts) Williams is the only Husky to average double-digits, leading the Huskies in scoring (12.8 ppg) while shooting 47% from the floor, 35% from deep and 80% from the charity stripe. The redshirt junior from Fulshear is averaging a team-best 11.7 ppg as well as 3.8 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 9.7 following his run over the last two months. In conference action, the Huskies do have three players in double-figures with Williams (11.7) sitting just ahead of
Elijah Brooks (11.5) for the team lead while
Demarco Bethea averages 10.6 and also leads HCU on the backboards at 5.6 per in conference action. Bethea is one of seven players averaging 3.5 or more caroms in SLC play.
Ryan Bartley (9.2), Green (9.1) and
D'Aundre Samuels (8.4) 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 13 games this season with two or more blocks, including three games with three and three outings with his career-high of four (Southern Arkansas / ULM / SFA). He is currently fourth in the Southland in blocks with 1.5 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 the 69-68 win in Commerce (2/23).
D'Aundre Samuels has come on over the past 14 games, starting 13 of those games. In that stretch, he is averaging 10.8 points, 3.9 caroms and 2.7 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 18-47 (38%) from long distance over his last 14 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 8.2 points per game for the Huskies while knocking down 40.5% 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.
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 (12-18 | 7-14 SLC) 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.
Monday night's game will be a doubleheader with the women, who face off with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 5 pm. The men's game is slated for a 7:30 pm tip-off, as the Huskies will honor their six outgoing seniors prior to the start of the contest.
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 night pending results from around the league.
#DawgsUp
