March 6, 2009

Listen Live l GameTracker
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format

Win and You're In

Lamar enters tonight's game in a tie foe eighth place with Southeastern Louisiana in the Southland Conference standings. One of those two teams will be the No. 8 seed in next week's State Farm SLC Tournament. Here are the scenarios that can play out this afternoon and tonight:
*** Lamar earns the berth if: The Cardinals defeat Nicholls State.
*** Lamar earns the berth if: The Cardinals lose to Nicholls State and SLU loses at Northwestern State.
*** SLU earns the berth if: The Cardinals lose to Nicholls State and SLU defeats Northwestern State.

The No. 8 seeded team will play the No. 1 seed in Thursday's first round. The No. 1 seed could be Stephen F. Austin or Nicholls State, depending on what happens with their games tonight in Beaumont and San Antonio. Sam Houston State is currently in second place and can earn a share of the championship but can not earn the top seed after various tiebreakers with either SFA or Nicholls.

Lamar-Nicholls State Series History

This will be the 24th meeting between Lamar and Nicholls State with the Cardinals holding a 20-3 all-time series advantage. Lamar is 13-0 in games played in Beaumont, 6-3 in Thibodaux and 1-0 on a neutral court. This is the only regular-season meeting between the schools this season after Lamar swept the two contests last year. Since returning to the SLC, Lamar is 13-3 vs. Nicholls State.

About Nicholls State

Nicholls State is 18-10 on the season and tied for second place in the Southland with an 11-4 mark. Nicholls' 18 wins thus far are the most in 11 years since Rickey Broussard's 1997-98 squad won 19 and swept the SLC regular-season and tournament titles. The Colonels can earn a share of the regular-season title with a win over the Cardinals and a loss by Stephen F. Austin at UTSA. LU and NSU could face one another in the first round of the SLC Tournament if Nicholls gets the No. 1 seed and Lamar would need to earn a spot via one of the three scenarios that are listed in the first note.

As a team, the Colonels are averaging 65.9 points overall and 63.9 in league games. They lead the SLC in FG pct. (.481) but rank 11th in FG pct. defense (.457). NSU ranks fourth in 3-point FG pct (.353) and averaged 7.0 made treys per game.

Colonel coach J.P. Piper, who is 51-92 in his fifth season following two years as an assistant to Ricky Blanton, is one of ten finalists for the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the nation's top mid-major coach, as voted on by the 20-member panel.

Final Home Game For Senior Quartet

Tonight's contest is the final game at the Montagne Center for seniors Jay Brown, Kenny Dawkins, Brandon McThay and Tristan Worrell. The group has been a part of 51 win over their three combined seasons, won over 73 percent of their home games, been at the forefront of the 20-game home court winning streak and were all key performers on last year's Southland Conference championship team.

Anthony Miles Steadily Improving At Point Guard

With the groin injury to Kenny Dawkins, freshman Anthony Miles has steadily gotten more comfortable running the Lamar offense. Since moving into a starting role seven games ago - and the starting point guard five games ago, he has been Lamar's second-leading scorer at 11.7 points per game. In five games at PG, he has averaged 14.6 points - with four double-figure games, 6.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He led the Cardinals in scoring at Sam Houston (2/18) with 15 points and had his coming-out party against UTA (2/25) with career-highs in points (24), field goals made (11), steals (2) and minutes (40). He has played all 40 minutes in each of the last three games after posting his previous high of 29 against both Sam Houston and Northwestern State in the previous two games.

McThay Continues Steady Guard Play

Senior G Brandon McThay is Lamar's leading uninjured player at 13.8 points per game and has posted 22 double-figure scoring games. He has made a team-high 59 3-pointers and at least three treys in a game 11 times, including over five of the last seven.

McThay scored 22 points on Wednesday at A&M-Corpus Christi, including 17 in the second half on 5-of-5 shooting, including two 3-pointers.

He has raised his FT shooting to 79.4 percent thanks in large part to his 48-of-54 (.888) shooting over the last 12 games, which also included a career-best 18-consecutive makes.

Hall Monitor

Junior G/F Ashton Hall is easily having his best season since tearing through Kountze HS from 2001-05. He has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 14 games, including a career-high 21 at UTSA last Saturday. He has averaged 12.0 ppg and 4.9 rpg over the last 14 games. His season scoring average has risen from 6.1 to 9.0 ppg during the last six weeks.

Jay Brown Remains A Threat Down Low

Despite struggling over the last two games (7.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg), Jay Brown still leads the SLC in double-doubles with nine - including six in 15 SLC games. He is averaging 12.8 points and 8.9 rebs overall and 12.8 points and 8.7 rebs in SLC play.

Cards Post Rotation Solid

Entering the season it looked as if Lamar would be able to employ as many as five players into the rotation down low. But that all changed when Justin Nabors (11.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg in 2007-08) went down with a broken leg prior to the season and Lawrence Nwevo underwent knee surgery in mid-November, leaving Jay Brown, Coy Custer and Tristan Worrell as the men down low.

That trio has combined to average 25.0 points, 17.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks thus far. They have also combined to shoot .488 (255-of-523) from the field and .726 (159-of-219) from the charity stripe.

Dawkins 8th in NCAA in FT

Kenny Dawkins ranks eighth in the nation in FT pct, at .887. He has gone 86-for-97 this year. Twice this season he has strung together lengthy streaks of consecutive makes - making 17 and 31-straight. Matt Sundblad holds the school-record at 40 straight.

For his career, he has gone 185-for-216 for a .857 pct., which places him behind only Sundblad's school-record .868 FT pct.

LU In The NCAA Stats

Entering the week, Lamar ranks among the top 100 in six categories: 62nd in scoring offense, 36th in free throw pct., 79th in rebound margin, 77th in assists per game, 99th in assist-to-turnover ratio and 81st in blocked shots per game.

Individually, Kenny Dawkins is ranked eighth in FT Pct. and 100th in steals, while Jay Brown is 30th in rebounds per game and 33rd in blocks per game.

Roc vs. the SLC

Steve Roccaforte is 27-20 all-time in SLC games, which includes a 17-6 (.739) record in home SLC games. Prior to the A&M-CC loss on Jan. 21, LU had won 14 straight against conference foes at the Montagne Center.

Last year's 8-0 home record in SLC play was just the fourth in the last five seasons by a league school, joining Northwestern State in 2006, and SLU and SFA in 2004.

SLC Records Since 2007

Since the 2006-07 conference season, Lamar has a 27-20 SLC regular-season record, which sits behind Stephen F. Austin (33-14) for the fourth-best mark. Sam Houston's 34-13 slate is just a hair better over the past three seasons, as is A&M-Corpus Christi's 30-17 mark.

Montagne Center Turns 25 In 2008-09

The Montagne Center is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this season. The 10,080-seat facility has been very kind to the previous LU squads that have come through. Lamar is 228-101 all-time in the facility for a .693 winning percentage. The Cards are 34-9 (.810) in the arena in their third season under head coach Steve Roccaforte

Offensive Shooting Notes

Lamar has shot at least 40 percent form the floor in four-straight games - after five-consceutive contests where it shot under 40 pct. The Cardinals set a new season-high of .563 pct. against Northwestern State four games ago to start the current stretch. In fact, that is the sixth-highest in an SLC game in the Steve Roccaforte-era.

In its last nine halves (dating back to the second half of the Sam Houston game), Lamar has shot 117-of-249 for 47.0 pct. with six halves of 40 pct or better.

Free Throw Notes

Lamar has been a very solid team form the free throw line this season, leading the SLC and ranking 36th in the NCAA at .733. LU has made at least 70 pct. of its attempts 17 times this season. The Cards have had two very impressive outings at the charity stripe this season - an 18-of-18 effort against Indiana State (12/7) and against Sam Houston (1/28), when they shot .808 pct. with season-highs of 42 makes and 52 attempts.