CONWAY, Ark. – The Lamar University Cardinals play the biggest game of their young Southland Conference schedule when they visit the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears at 1 p.m. Saturday in a battle of teams at the top of the conference standings. The game will air on KLVI (AM 560).
 
The Cardinals (8-5 overall, 3-0 Southland) and the Sugar Bears (10-4, 3-0) are two of four unbeaten teams in conference play. Also bringing perfect SLC marks in to the weekend are Abilene Christian (9-4, 3-0) and Stephen F. Austin (10-3, 2-0).
 
The Cardinals enter Saturday's game as the highest-scoring team in the Southland Conference. LU is 82.3 points per game overall, and 83 points per game in conference play. The Cards have outscored their three Southland Conference opponents by an average of 30 points per game.
 
Central Arkansas is the conference's top defensive team, allowing 49.6 points per game, which is second in the nation. The Sugar Bears allowed an average of 47 points per game in their three conference contests.
 
LU enters the weekend leading the nation in steals per game (17.2) and turnover margin (plus 14.2 per game). Junior guard Chastadie Barrs, who has at least one steal in all 74 games of her career, leads the nation in steals per game with an average of 6.54 per game. Barrs has 350 career steals, nine behind the all-time Southland Conference record of 359 held by Nina Randle of Louisiana-Monroe.
 
"Our steals help create offense," LU coach Robin Harmony said. "We hang our hat on our defense."
 
Moe Kinard leads LU in scoring, averaging 15.5 points per game, followed by Barrs, who averages 13.8 points per game along with a conference-best 6.54 assists per game. DeA'ngela Mathis, who set a career high with 20 points in LU's win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi only to eclipse that with career bests of 25 points and nine rebounds in LU's win over New Orleans, leads LU with an average of 17.3 points per game in SLC play.
 
Central Arkansas is led by Taylor Baudoin, who averages 14.4 points per game overall. Baudoin and Kamry Orr each average 14 points per game in SLC play for the Sugar Bears.
 
LU has a 10-7 lead in the all-time series with Central Arkansas. Under Harmony, the Cardinals are 3-1 against the Sugar Bears. This is the fourth time in the last five seasons that LU has traveled to Central Arkansas. UCA's only appearance at LU during Harmony's tenure was on Jan. 13, 2015, when the Cardinals were 82-46 winners at the Montagne Center. Last season, the Cardinals opened SLC play with a 70-56 win at UCA on New Year's Eve behind 25 points from Kinard.
 
The Cardinals remain on the road to take on Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. Wednesday. LU's next home game is 7 p.m. Jan. 17 against Incarnate Word.
 
TICKETS: For tickets, please call 409-880-1715, or CLICK HERE. The Montagne Center ticket office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. It reopens one hour prior to tipoff on weeknights and weekends. LU students receive free admission to home games with their Cardinal One card, while Junior Cardinal Club members are admitted for free when they present their membership badge.