BEAUMONT, Texas – After slipping to seventh place in the standings, the Lamar University Cardinals will look to continue their climb back up the Southland Conference standings Wednesday when they return to the court to take on defending conference regular-season champion Sam Houston State. The Cardinals began their climb Saturday with their victory at Houston Baptist moving into a tie for sixth place in the conference standings.
 
Prior to their game at HBU, the Cardinals had dropped three of four contests but bounced back with one of their biggest offensive outputs of the season. The Cardinals hung 102 points on the Huskies in a game that saw LU shoot 75 percent from the field in the opening half, and better than 80 percent for the first 12 minutes of the game. The Cardinals had five players finish the night in double figures including senior T.J. Atwood and sophomore Davion Buster who each hit the 20-point plateau.
 
For the Cardinals (9-8/3-3 SLC) to continue their climb Wednesday they will have to do it against a very tough Sam Houston State squad. The Bearkats (11-6/4-2 SLC) were tied for first prior to their most recent stretch that has seen them drop two of their past three games and are coming off a five-point home loss to Central Arkansas.
 
Sam Houston enters the midweek contest in a two-way tie for fourth just half game back of Stephen F. Austin and Abilene Christian, and a game up on Big Red.
 
The Cardinals are coming off one of their most explosive night of the season offensively and are preparing for one of the top offensive threats in the Southland. The Bearkats rank near the top of the league averaging just over 80 points per game. SHSU is led by three players in double figures but they do a great job as a team spreading out their scoring as five players average 8.0 points per game or better.
 
The flip side of that coin is that  LU ranks among the conference leaders in scoring defense surrendering just 67 points to their opponents on a nightly basis. The two teams are basically identical on the glass with the Cards holding a slight statistical advantage (+1.1).
 
The major key for the Red and White is if they can continue the solid play they got back to Saturday in Houston. In the two previous games the Cardinals had struggled to hang on to the basketball, but against Houston Baptist the Cards limited their turnovers to just 14 in a fast-paced game – of the 14 turnovers only five came in the second half. Even more importantly, the Cardinals limited the damage HBU was able to do from their miscues.
 
The Cardinals own a 32-26 (.552) all-time record in the series against SHSU. Big Red has won three of the past five meetings and three straight in Beaumont. Big Red is 22-13 (.629) all-time against the Bearkats in Beaumont. The two teams have split each of the past three season series, which includes a three-point victory for the Cardinals last season in Beaumont.
 
The game against the Bearkats will tip off at 7 p.m. from the Montagne Center, and will be broadcast live on Newstalk 560 KLVI.