Head coach Steve Roccaforte guided Lamar to a conference championship in his second season - joining Pat Foster and Billy Tubbs as the only ones to accomplish that in their first two years.
  
 
Lamar Heads To SE Louisiana With No. 1 Seed In Its Sights

LU can lock up at least an NIT bid with a win

March 7, 2008

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After securing at least a share of the Southland Conference title on Thursday, Lamar concludes the regular season at SE Louisiana Saturday afternoon with a chance to secure the No. 1 seed at next week's SLC Tournament.

Lamar Claims Share of First Regular-Season Conference Title Since 1984
By virtue of its win over Nicholls State on thursday, Lamar clinched at least a share of the Southland Conference regular-season championship, marking its first since the 1983-84 season. Lamar has won 11 conference championships in 56 previous seasons.

A Win Today Would...
** Clinch the outright SLC Championsip and No. 1 seed in next week's SLC Tournament
** Give Lamar 20 wins for the first time since 1987-88 and the 12th time in school history
** Be Lamar's 14th conference vistory which would set a school-record, passing the 13 wins by Jack Martin's 1961-62 team
** Be Lamar's sixth conference road win - tying the school record set in 1961-62 and 2001-02

13 Conference Victories Ties School Record
With Thursday's win over Nicholls State, Lamar won its 13th conference victory and tied the school-record held by the 1961-62 team that went 13-1 in the Lone Star Conference.

Roc Wins League Title in Second Season;
Ties Tubbs For Second-Fastest In Lamar History
When Lamar clinched a share of the SLC regular-season title on Thursday, it gave coach Steve Roccaforte his first title in his second year as the head man in Beaumont. Only Pat Foster - who won his first title in his first season - won a championship sooner. Of the three other Cardinal coaches to lead their teams to titles, Foster did it in his first season, Billy Tubbs did it in his second season and Jack Martin accomplished the feat in his 10th year.

2007-08 Home Slate Produces Record Win Totals
Lamar completed its home season with a 14-2 record and a 13-game winning streak. The 14 wins are tied for the second-most in a season at Lamar and the second-most in the 24-year history of the Montagne Center. Lamar is now 25-5 (.833) under coach Roccaforte.
Lamar Single-Season Home Win Totals
15, 1987-88
14, 2007-08, 1979-80, 78-79, 63-64
13, 1977-78 Lamar's 13-game home winning streak is currently the 14th-longest in the nation.

Lamar Finishes SLC Home Schedule 8-0
Lamar was the only Southland school to go undefeated at home in league games this season. The Cardinals' 8-0 mark was the first in the league since NW State went 8-0 two years ago. In the last five seasons only four teams have held serve at home - Lamar in 2008, NWLA in 2006, and SELA and SFA in 2004.

Lamar-Southeastern Louisiana Series History
This will be the 33rd meeting between Lamar and SLU with the Cardinals holding a 19-13 all-time series advantage. Lamar is 12-5 in games played in Beaumont, 6-7 in Hammond and 1-1 on a neutral court. The schools split the two meetings a year ago. The Lions won the first game, 73-64, on Feb. 3, 2007 in Hammond, before the Cardinals closed out the regular-season with an 83-64 win before a season-high crowd of 7,497 at the Montagne Center on March 3, 2007. Lamar won 88-74 in Beaumont one month ago. Lamar Sanders scored 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting to lead the Cardinals, who shot 65 percent in the second half. SLU has won nine of the last 14 in the series. Since returning to the SLC, Lamar is 9-10 vs. SLU.

Scouting Southeastern Louisiana
Southeastern Louisiana enters the game with a 16-12 overall record and a 8-7 ledger in Southland Conference games. The Lions are 3-4 aat home in SLC games but have won three of their last four overall entering Saturday. They are tied with NW State for fourth-place in the league and hold the tiebreaker with the Demons.

Like Lamar, Southeastern will play 9-10 players at least 10 minutes per game. Senior G/F Kevyn Green leads three players in double figures with 15.4 points per game, which also ranks fourth in the SLC. He is posting 16.7 ppg in league action which puts him third. He leads the Lions with 73 3-pointers and ranks fifth in the SLC at 2.5 per game.

As a team, Southeastern averages 67.7 ppg and ranks third in scoring defense, surrendering just 61.7 ppg. They also rank third in FG pct (.469) and rebound margin (plus-4.3).
 

 

Lamar University Men's Basketball
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