BEAUMONT, Texas – Sophomore Davion Buster scored a game-high 20 points and senior T.J. Atwood added 19 as the Lamar University cruised to a 76-61 victory over Mount St. Mary's Friday evening. The victory moves LU to 3-1 (.750) on the season, and a perfect 3-0 at home.
 
The Cardinals knocked down nearly 53 percent (29-of-55) of their shots Friday, including a 7-of-18 (.389) effort from three-point range. Big Red trailed on the boards but only by two, 34-32. LU held the Mountaineers to a 24-of-56 (.429) performance, including eight triples, but the Mount converted less than 30 percent of their threes.
 
Big Red also forced their guests into 17 turnovers and scored 17 points from the Mountaineers' mistakes. LU did quite a bit of damage in the paint scoring 38 points while Mount St. Mary's saw the majority of its production come off the bench (40 points from the reserves).
 
In addition to Buster and Atwood, senior V.J. Holmes scored 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting, and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. He also dished out a team-high five assists. Junior Ellis Jefferson came off the bench to score 10.
 
"I thought we did a great job tonight of showing the ability to bounce back," said LU head coach Tic Price. "We felt like we let a game get away from us at Duquesne that we should've won. After that loss, we went back to the tape and showed our guys things we could've done differently. Our guys listened and corrected some of those mistakes. We beat very good Mount St. Mary's team tonight."
 
After falling behind early, 14-9, six minutes into the opening half, the Cardinals put on a run that wouldn't be answered by their guests. Less than seven minutes later the Cardinals turned a five-point deficit into a nine-point lead sparked by two Buster three-pointers and some stifling defense. The Red and White didn't let up pushing their advantage to 17 points with 5:09 remaining – a 27-5 LU run.
 
"Going into the game we said we needed to bring a lot ball pressure, as well as a lot of pressure on the shooters," said Price. "I thought we did a really good job of when they penetrated we had guys in the gaps forcing them to kick it out. In addition to that our freshman David Muoka and Corey Nickerson did a great job of altering shots tonight. Ellis Jefferson also came in and gave us great energy off the bench."
 
The Mount appeared to settle down late in the half trimming the deficit back to 12, 40-28, with 1:20 remaining until halftime. The Cardinals scored the final four points of the half to push their lead to 16, 44-28, heading into the locker room.
 
The Cardinals picked right up where they left off in the first scoring the first nine points of the half, including two baskets from Atwood and one from freshman David Muoka. The Cardinals opening run to start the second half ballooned to 20-7 as the LU pushed their lead to 29, 64-35, following a layup from freshman Corey Nickerson.
 
The Mountaineers made a little run to trim LU's lead back down to 19, 64-45, with just over seven minutes remaining but that would be as close as the Mount would get until the final stages of the game by scoring the game's final eight points for the final tally.
 
Friday's game was the final home contest for the Cardinals for the next three weeks as Big Red hits the road for four straight. The Cardinals return to action Thursday when they travel to Orem, Utah to take on Utah Valley. The game is slated to begin at 7 (8 p.m. Beaumont time).