Feb. 29, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Riding the longest winning streak in the Southland Conference this season at 11 games, Lamar will look for number 12 on Saturday evening when it travels to Lake Charles, La., to face arch-rival McNeese State. The Cardinals have dropped nine-consecutive games across the border. Their last road win over the Cowboys came on Dec. 20, 1997.

Lamar-McNeese State Series History
This will be the 85th meeting between Lamar and McNeese State with the Cardinals holding a 47-37 all-time series advantage. Lamar is 32-10 in games played in Beaumont, 14-27 in Lake Charles and 1-0 on a neutral court. The team's split last year's games with each school holding serve on its home floor. The Cards won the first meeting this season, 89-67 in Beaumont. McNeese has won nine of the last 13 meetings in the series, including five of the last eight. Since returning to the SLC, Lamar is 4-12 vs. McNeese, 6-4 in Beaumont and 0-8 in Lake Charles.

Scouting McNeese State
McNeese State (12-13, 6-7) returns home from a 74-53 win at UTSA having won two-straight and four of its last five since a 74-71 overtime loss to Nicholls State at Burton Coliseum.

Senior Jarvis Bradley leads the team at 12.9 ppg and 7.4 rpg, while fellow senior John Ford is first in free-throw pct (.813) and second in scoring (10.1 ppg) and 3-pointers made (36). Sophomore Diego Kaplan leads the Cowboys with 51 treys and ranks tenth in the SLC at 2.04 per game.

As a team, McNeese State averages 64.5 ppg on 42.0 percent shooting. They rank first in the league in blocked shots (6.24 bpg) and second in rebound margin (+5.5). They are third in both rebounding (38.8) and rebounding defense (33.4).

Cards Run Win Streak To 11
Lamar enters Saturday's game having won a Southland Conference best 11-consecutive games, marking the longest such streak since the 1983-84 team rattled off 13-straight in the middle of their season. With all 11 coming in league action, it is the longest streak during conference play in school history. Their streak is currently tied for the fourth-longest in the country.

Lamar All-Time Single-Season Win Streaks
15 1968-69
13 1983-84
12 1963-64, 62-63
11 2007-08
10 1960-61*
9 1987-88, 83-84, 81-82, 80-81, 61-62
*The 1960-61 team closed the season with 10-consecutive wins and opened the 1961-62 season with two more for a multi-year streak of 12.

Active NCAA Winning Streaks
1. Davidson 18
2. Cornell 12
Robert Morris 12
4. Lamar 11
5. Xavier 10
6. Belmont 9
Md.-Baltimore County 9

Lamar Sets School Record For Consecutive Conference Wins
By virtue of Wednesday's win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the 2007-08 team set the school record for consecutive league wins, previously held by Jack Martin's 1962-63 team at 10.

Lamar Turning Into Road Warriors
After struggling to win a road game earlier this season, Lamar has found its stride in Southland play and enters Saturday's game with a five-game winning streak in the opponent's home facility and is 5-1 in SLC road contests this year.

Conference Road Victories
6, 2001-02 Southland Conference
6, 1961-62 Lone Star Conference
5, 2007-08 Southland Conference
5, 2005-06 Southland Conference
5, 1983-84 Southland Conference
5, 1962-63 Lone Star Conference
5, 1960-61 Lone Star Conference
5, 1959-60 Lone Star Conference
4, 2004-05 Southland Conference
4, 1984-85 Southland Conference
4, 1982-83 Southland Conference
4, 1978-79 Southland Conference
4, 1977-78 Southland Conference

Fun With Numbers
** Lamar has made 10 or 11 3-pointers in four of its last five games and has made at least eight trey in 10 games during the 11 -game winning streak.
** Lamar is 8-1 when making at least 10 3-pointers
. ** Lamar has scored at least 72 points in 16 straight games
** Lamar Sanders has scored 791 points and grabbed 492 rebounds in his two years at Lamar.
** Kenny Dawkins is 22 points shy of 400 this year.

Nabors & Todd Fill Void Left By Barrow
With the injury to Matthew Barrow, those 23 minutes per game were bound to go somewhere and the two players who have benefitted the most have been junior Justin Nabors and senior Currye Todd - the two guys to start at the `3' spot in the lineup. In the last six games since Barrow went down, Nabors is averaging 14.2 points and 6.3 rebounds, while Todd has averaged 12.8 points. In fact, in Todd's last four games he has tallied 13, 22, 20 and 10 points with the middle two marking his two highest this season. He has also made 12 3-pointers in the last five games. Nabors brings a streak of six-straight games scoring in double-figures as he has increased his scoring output from 10.6 ppg to a season-best 11.4.

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 four-year institution. Lamar is 13-2 at home this season and 24-5 (.828) under coach Roccaforte.

Lamar's 12-game home winning streak is currently the 13th-longest in the nation.

Best Shooters In The Southland?
Lamar Sanders is first in FG Pct at 65.8 pct, Currye Todd is second in 3-Point FG Pct at 44.3 pct and Kenny Dawkins is second in FT Pct. at 86.0 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 McNeese State contest ranked in the top 60 in the NCAA in three categories: scoring offense-eighth, assists per game-21st and steals per game-17th. Additionally, Kenny Dawkins ranks 39th in free throw percentage at 85.7 pct., 81st in assists per game at 4.6 and 60th in steals per game at 2.0.

The Magic Number is... 70
Lamar is 17-4 this season when scoring at least 70 points and 12-2 when holding its opponents under 70. The Cardinals are now 31-10 in two seasons under coach Steve Roccaforte when reaching the 70-point plateau.

In A Giving Mood All Season Long
Lamar has averaged 17.2 assists per game to ranks second in the SLC, with 11 games handing out at least 20. The Cards have had 20 or more in three of their last four games and six in 13 SLC contests. .

Checking the RPI and Sagarin Ratings
In the latest NCAA RPI Rankings, Lamar is listed at 122 (up 13 spots from last week), while McNeese State is 235. Stephen F. Austin is the highest ranked SLC team at 46, followed by Sam Houston at 88 and then Lamar. In the Sagarin Ratings, Lamar is ranked 140 and McNeese is 240. The SLC is rated 23rd among 31 conferences and the Pac-10 is the top-rated conference.