BEAUMONT, Texas – After a thrilling last-second victory over Nicholls for their first Southland Conference win of the season, the Lamar University Cardinals (5-12/1-3 SLC) now head to Commerce, Texas looking to make it two wins in a row.
 
Thursday's victory over the Colonels put an end to a seven-game skid for the Red and White and moved them alone into ninth place in the Southland standings. Big Red will look to climb another rung of that ladder Saturday when they face the Lions. A&M-Commerce sits a game up on the LU and currently in a five-way tie for fourth in the league.
 
The Southland Conference is currently in the midst of a traffic jam in the early stages of the season with three teams tied for first and five more tied just a game back – meaning any team that gets hot now would really help their seeding as we get closer to the stretch run of the season.
 
Led by the league's leading scorer, freshman Nate Calmese, the Cardinals got a boost on both ends of the floor from mid-year enrollee, Janko Bulajic (pronounced Yawn-ko boo-LAH-chik) Thursday evening. The 6-10 native of Montenegro scored seven points, pulled down eight rebounds, dished out two assists and blocked two shots.
 
The Lions have been in a similar situation to LU having recently ended a five-game slide after splitting their last four games. A&M-Commerce ranks just ahead of Big Red scoring 69.4 points per game on the season (just a point better than LU) led by Demarcus Demonia – the league's second-leading scorer (16.5 ppg).
 
Saturday's game is slated to tip off 4:30 p.m. from The Field House in Commerce. It will be broadcast live on Newstalk 560 KLVI and streamed live on ESPN+.