LUBBOCK, Texas (February 22, 2020) – This is a release from Lubbock Christian athletics.
In an important South Central Regional battle between the No. 5 and No. 9 teams according to last week’s rankings, it was the lower-ranked team that won as Lubbock Christian took down Texas A&M-Kingsville 75-60 inside the Rip Griffin Center.
It was the home finale for the Chaps, and prior to their win over the Javelinas, they honored their lone senior on the team, Rashaan Proctor. The Ruston, Louisiana native played well in his final time in front of the LCU crowd, hitting 5-7 from the field and reaching double-figures with 12 points.
Proctor was not the only Chap player to finish in double-figures though. Parker Hicks led the team with 18 points, shooting 7-13 from the field, including 3-5 from behind the arc. Lloyd Daniels and Ty Caswell both finished with 15 points, with Daniels leading the team with six assists. LCU’s rebound leader was guard Cameron Copley, who pulled down nine in 31 minutes.
Early on, the game was played the way it should have according to the stats, with two of the league’s top defensive teams with each team forcing turnovers and making stops before Proctor finally got the game’s first bucket two minutes in. He ended up scoring LCU’s first seven points before Caswell made a layup at the 14:26 mark to put the Chaps up by seven.
Texas A&M-Kingsville kept the game close though and slowly chipped away at the Lubbock Christian lead, finally tying the game back up at 21-21 with 5:42 left before halftime. Caswell broke the tie with a three-pointer before hitting another a minute later to get the Chaps back up by six, and by the time the two teams went to the locker room, LCU was up by eight.
Lubbock Christian clamped down defensively in the second half, limiting Texas A&M-Kingsville to a .375 field-goal percentage in the final 20 minutes. The Javelinas especially struggled from behind the arc during the LCU win, hitting just three of their 22 attempts (13.6 percent).
With 12 minutes left in the half, LCU finally got the lead out to double-digits thanks to a three-pointer from Hicks, and the Chaps led by at least 10 points for the rest of the game. Hicks was a big reason Lubbock Christian was able to pull away, as he scored 15 of his 18 points during the final 20 minutes of the game.
LCU really put the game out of reach with just under four minutes to go, as they worked a 7-0 run while forcing five defensive stops. By the time the Javelinas scored again the Chaps were up by 18 and there was just over a minute left in the game.
TURNING POINT
Lubbock Christian never trailed in the win, but the lead was as close as four points with 13 minutes left in the game. Copley and Aamer Muhammad made back-to-back layups at that point though, followed by the three-pointer from Hicks and a jumper from Daniels that put them up by 13 two minutes later.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
The Chaps shot pretty average from the field at 43.3 percent during the first half but hit an incredible 68 percent of their 25 shots in the second half. Overall, they ended up shooting 54.5 percent from the field, making them 9-1 when they shoot better than 50 percent.
NEXT UP
The Chaps will finish out the regular season with a pair of road games, taking on UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico on Thursday and Saturday of next week.
This was a release from Lubbock Christian athletics.