Lamar Hosts UCA On "White Out" The Montagne Thursday :: LU won the first meeting in overtime last month

Feb. 20, 2008

Lamar returns home for a pair of games against Central Arkansas on Thursday and Northwestern State on Saturday - which is also Homecoming and Open House on the Lamar campus.

Local Product Tracy Byrd To Sing National Anthem
Country music star and local resident Tracy Byrd will sing the national anthem at Thursday's game. Byrd began playing nightclubs in Southeast Texas, including working with Mark Chesnutt. After Chesnutt secured a record deal, Byrd took over as the house band at Cutters Nightclub in Beaumont, landing his own record deal in 1992. His first three albums sold over 3 million copies.

Lamar-Central Arkansas Series History
This will be the fourth meeting between Lamar and UCA. Lamar won both games last year, taking a 62- 50 decision in Beaumont on Jan. 18, and a then holding off a late UCA rally for a 66-62 win in Conway a month later. Earlier this season the Cards left Conway with an 89-86 overtime win on Jan. 24.

Scouting Central Arkansas
Central Arkansas enters the week with an 13-12 overall record and a 3-8 mark in Southland Conference play. UCA has lost three-straight games following a double-overtime win at Nicholls State on Feb. 2 Senior G Nate Bowie (17.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 3.6 apg, 2.1 spg) is one of four players who are averaging 9.9 points per game and leads the SLC with six 20-point games and a 39-point effort at Nicholls on the season. Sophomore G Marcus Pillow averages 12.6 ppg and lead the Bears in 3-point shooting (61-185, .330) and FT pct (.800). Senior F Durrell Nevels is the team's leader inside (9.9 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 40 blocks) and has a pair of double-doubles in his last four games since returning from a foot injury five games ago. As a team, UCA averages 68.2 ppg on 40.7 percent shooting. The Bears rank third in the SLC in FT pct (68.1) and second in blocked shots (5.12 bpg and 128 total).

Barrow, Mahoney Out For The Season
Senior G Matt Barrow and sophomore G Shane Mahoney will not play for the Cardinals the remainder of the season. Barrow was averaging 8.9 points over the first 20 games, which included ten starts. In the seven Southland Conference games prior to the injury, he was scoring 11.1 ppg. In three seasons, the Baton Rouge, La., native had tallied 750 points and made 116 3-point field goals. He injured his right knee late in the first half at Nicholls State on Feb. 7. Mahoney played in all 28 games as a true freshman in 2006-07 and scored 26 points in 6.9 minutes per outing. The native of Redondo Beach, Calif. has not played in any games this season.

Cards Run Win Streak To Eight
Lamar enters Thursday's game having won eightconsecutive games, marking the longest such streak since the 1987-88 team rattled off nine-straight in the middle of their season. With all eight coming in league action, it is the longest streak during conference play since the 1983-84 team win its final nine en route to an 11-1 mark and the last regular-season championship in school history. Their streak is currently tied for the eighth-longest in the country.

Active NCAA Winning Streaks
1. Memphis, 25
2. Davidson, 16
3. Western Ky., 11
4. Connecticut, 10
'''Cornell, 10
'''Wright St., 10
7. Robert Morris, 9
8. BYU, 8
'''Butler, 8
'''IUPUI, 8
'''Lamar, 8
'''Portland St., 8
'''Xavier, 8

Home Sweet Home
Lamar will play 16 games in the Montagne Center this season. The Cardinals played 14 home games last season, posting an 11-3 record, which ranked as the fifth-best home winning percentage (.786) in the Montagne Center. Since the Montagne Center opened (1984-85), Lamar has won 68.6% of its games in the 10,080-seat arena. Overall, Lamar has won 73.7% of its home games since the 1951-52 season, the Cardinals' first year competing as a fouryear institution. Lamar is 11-2 at home this season and 22-5 (.815) under coach Roccaforte. Lamar's 10-game home winning streak is currently the 22nd-longest in the nation.

Balanced Scoring Has Been The Key
Through 10 conference games, Lamar has five players averaging double figures in scoring with the first and fifth scoring options separated by just 4.0 points per game. In fact, six different players have led the team in scoring over those 10 games.

Dawkins Nominated For SLC POW After Strong Two Games Last Week
Junior G Kenny Dawkins didn't earn the SLC Player of the Week, but did give the selection committee some strong numbers to consider. Dawkins averaged 21.0 points and 8.0 assists while shooting .471 (8-of-17) from 3-point range as Lamar won both of its games and extended its winning streak to eight. He had 19 points, eight assists and four steals to go along with four 3-pointers in the win over UTA and then tied his season-high with 23 points on 5-of-9 shooting - including 4-of-4 from outside - to go along with another eight assists, four rebounds and three steals at Texas State. He also made 16-of-20 free throws to maintain his SLC-leading pct of .864. The Holly Springs, Miss., native played all 40 minutes at Texas State and all but the final 44 seconds vs. UTA.

Checking the RPI and Sagarin Ratings
In the latest NCAA RPI Rankings, Lamar is listed at 137 (up 24 spots from last week), while UCA is not listed due to their transition to Division I. Stephen F. Austin is the highest ranked SLC team at 57, followed by Sam Houston at 90 and then Lamar. In the Sagarin Ratings, Lamar is ranked 150 and UCA is 271. The SLC is rated 23rd among 31 conferences and the Pac-10 is the top-rated conference.

Sanders' .667 FG Pct Ranks Third In The Nation
Senior F Lamar Sanders ranks second in the Southland in FG pct with a .667 clip (he also is shooting .724 in 10 SLC games) and tied for third in the NCAA.
NCAA Division I FG Pct. Leaders
1. Kenny George, UNC Asheville 70.6
2. Jermaine Griffin, Texas-Arlington 67.0
3. Dwayne Curtis, Mississippi 66.7
'''Lamar Sanders, Lamar 66.7
5. Arinze Onuaku, Syracuse 65.7
'''Matt Nelson, Boise State 65.7

Roc Reaches 30-Win Mark In 55 Games
Second-year head coach Steve Roccaforte is now 30- 25 through 55 games, making him the third-fastest coach in school history to reach the 30-win mark.

Best Shooters In The League?
Lamar Sanders is second in FG Pct at 66.7 pct, Currye Todd is first in 3-Point FG Pct at 44.9 pct and Kenny Dawkins is first in FT Pct. at 86.4 pct. No school has had two players lead the league in FG and FT shooting in the same season, let alone all three categories.

Lamar In The NCAA Rankings
Lamar enters the UCA contest ranked in the top 60 in the NCAA in three categories: scoring offense-11th, assists per game-20th and steals per game-16th. Additionally, Kenny Dawkins ranks 35th in free throw percentage at 86.4 pct., 85th in assists per game at 4.6 and 89th in steals per game at 1.9.

The Magic Number is... 70
Lamar is 14-4 this season when scoring at least 70 points and 11-2 when holding its opponents under 70. The Cardinals are now 28-10 in two seasons under coach Steve Roccaforte when reaching the 70- point plateau.

In A Giving Mood All Season Long
Lamar has assisted on 56.7 of its baskets this season - a figure that is slightly down from a year ago, but when you look at the Cardinals' assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.06 (which ranks second in the SLC), you will see that that figure is slightly ahead of last year's 1.037 total.

Lamar With Three In SLC Top 15 In 3-Pointers
Lamar is the only school in the SLC with three players ranking in the top 15 in 3-point field goal percentage. Currye Todd ranks first at 44.9%, Kenny Dawkins is rated sixth at 41.2%, and Brandon McThay would rank ahead of Todd with his 45.2% except he is three shy of the minimum of 1.0 made 3FG per game. As a team, the Cardinals are second at 37.1% and first in 3-pointers made per game at 8.22.

More On The 3-Ball
Since Steve Roccaforte took over at Lamar last season, the Cardinals have made 455 total 3-pointers for an average of 8.2 per game. In those 55 games, LU has made at least 10 treys 18 times, including seven this year and two straight entering the UCA game. The season-high 16 made against Louisiana College on Dec. 8 are tied for the third-most in school history, 13th-most in the NCAA in 2007-08 and the second- most in the SLC this season. Only once in the past two seasons have the Cardinals failed to make less than four in a game (vs. NSU in the 2007 SLC Tournament).