BEAUMONT, Texas – When Lamar University steps on the court Sunday at the Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum, it will look to continue an odd trend which has played out through the first eight games of the season. The Cardinals have yet to win or lose consecutive games having rotated outcomes through the first eight games and are coming off a tough three-point loss at UTSA Thursday.
 
The Cardinal are 4-4 (.500) on the season but two of those losses have come by a combined four points (both on the road) and the other two (at SMU and at Longwood) were just 11-point setbacks both of which saw Lamar with opportunities that just didn't go their way.
 
Sunday's opponent is a familiar one to the Red and White. The Bearkats and the Cardinals have squared off 76 times in series history with LU winning 35 of those contests. The series, which dates all the back to the 1951-52 season has primarily been played as conference rivals when both schools were in the Southland Conference. Sam Houston has won four of the last five in the series.
 
The Johnson Coliseum has been a tough place to play, historically, for the Cardinals. Lamar is 12-24 (.333) all-time against SHSU in Huntsville. Lamar heads to Huntsville looking for its first win since the 2019-20 season.
 
The Bearkats hold an identical 4-4 (.500) overall record but are playing some of their best basketball in the last 10 days. During that stretch, the 'Kats are 3-1 with the lone loss being a 17-point setback at Arizona State Wednesday evening.
 
The Cardinals bring the Southland's top scoring offensive into the contest and the league's second-best three-point shooting team (.403) as well as the Southland's top three-point shooter in transfer B.B. Knight. The Cardinals league-leading offense (83.6 ppg) comes from a balanced attack. Lamar is the only league school with four players averaging at least 10.4 points per game without having at least one player in the top 10 in scoring.
 
A strong-shooting team in their own right, the Bearkats offense primarily goes through two players – Davon Barnes (15.9 ppg) and Lamar Wilkerson (13.4 ppg). As a team the Bearkats are averaging nearly 74 points per game while shooting 40.1 percent from the field and better than 32 percent from three-point range.
 
Sunday's contest – the second Sunday game of the season for LU – will tip off at 5 p.m. from the Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum in Huntsville, Texas. It will be broadcast live on Newstalk 560 and streamed live on ESPN+.