BEAUMONT, Texas – When the Lamar University men's basketball team steps on the court Saturday to tipoff against Delaware State it will be a small piece of history. Saturday's game against the Hornets will be the first meeting between the two teams on the court.
The Cardinals enter the contest looking to move back above the .500 mark, while the Delaware State is still searching for its first victory of the season. LU is 1-1 overall after an eight-point setback at Fresno State, which was a competitive game right down to the end. Big Red opened the season with a 101-58 victory over Austin College in its season opener.
The Hornets come into the non-conference matchup wondering when their fortunes will change. DSU is 0-3, and all three games have been heartbreakers. Delaware State opened the season with tough home losses to Delaware and Penn, then went on the road to face Nebraska. The Hornets fell behind by 25 points only to rally to within four before the Huskers pulled away late.
DSU is led by two players in double figures, Devin Morgan and DeAndre Haywood. A 5-10 guard out of Virginia, Morgan leads the team averaging 11.0 per game, while Haywood is scoring just over 10 per contest.
Despite LU's overall youth, the Cards have done a great job of spreading out the scoring through the first two games. The Cardinals currently have four players in double figures led by sophomore guard
Kevin Booze who is coming off a season-high 20 points at Fresno State. In addition to Booze, newcomers
Lincoln Davis and
Nick Garth are each scoring 11 points per contest.
The Cardinals have been getting the job done on both ends of the floor. Big Red currently leads the Southland Conference in rebounding and blocks. The Cards are averaging 55 boards and nearly eight blocks per game through the first two games of the season. Junior guard
Marcus Owens is tops on the team pulling down eight rebounds per game, while newcomers
Christian Kennedy (3.0 bpg) and
Dorian Chatman (2.0 bpg) rank first and second in the Southland in blocks respectively.
Two areas of concern for the Red and White early on have been fouls and three-point shooting. The Cardinals are being whistled for 31 fouls per game, and shooting less than 29 percent from beyond the arc.
While the Cardinals are averaging close to 88 points per game, DSU would like to see more production offensively. The Hornets enter the Saturday noon contest shooting less than 39 percent from the field, and averaging fewer than 57 points per game.
Saturday's game is slated to tip off at noon (11 a.m. Beaumont time) from Memorial Hall Gym in Dover, Del. The game can be heard live on Newstalk 560 AM KLVI.
-LU CARDINALS-
