First-Place Cardinals Host Arch-Rival McNeese State On Mardis Gras Weekend

[Guest abovetherim]

Cards looking to extend their current winning streak to four games

Feb. 1, 2008

Riding a season-best three-game winning streak, Lamar returns home from sweeping its road trip to UCA and Northwestern State for a women's-men's doubleheader against arch-rival McNeese State on Saturday. With a 4-1 record, Lamar leads the Southland Conference for the first time since the 2005-06 squad opened the schedule with a 5-1 mark and were tied with NWLA.

Lamar-McNeese State Series History

This will be the 84th meeting between Lamar and McNeese State with the Cardinals holding a 46-37 all-time series advantage. Lamar is 31-10 in games played in Beaumont, 14-27 in Lake Charles and 1-0 on a neutral court. The team's split last year's games with each school holding serve on its home floor. McNeese has won nine of the last 12 meetings in the series, including five of the last seven. Since returning to the SLC, Lamar is 5-12 vs. McNeese, 5-4 in Beaumont and 0-8 in Lake Charles.

Scouting McNeese State

McNeese State comes to town with an 8-9 overall record and a 2-3 mark in the Southland action. The Cowboys were 6-6 in non-conference play which included road losses to Lipscomb, LSU, Louisiana Tech, Missouri and Texas A&M. They are 0-2 in SLC road games.

Senior Jarvis Bradley is the only player averaging double-figures - at 12.8 ppg. He also leads the team in rebounds (7.2) and personal fouls (58 with five disqualifications). As a team, McNeese State averages a SLC-worst 61.0 ppg on 40.3 percent shooting. They rank first in the league in blocked shots (5.41 per game) and third in rebound margin (+6.1).

Hopkins Named SLC Player of the Week

Senior G Darren Hopkins was named the Southland Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week after leading the Cardinals to a 4-1 start in league play. It is the second-career honor for Hopkins, as he first won the honor on Feb. 26, 2007. Hopkins is also the second Cardinal to win the honor this season, as Lamar Sanders was selected on Jan. 14.

Hopkins had his two highest-scoring games of the year last week, as he averaged 17.5 points and 5.5 rebounds while shooting .619 (13-of-21) from the floor helping Lamar sweep road games at UCA and Northwestern State.

In the team's overtime 89-86 win at Central Arkansas, he netted a team and season-high 20 points (on 7-of-11), which snapped the Cardinals' eight-game road losing streak. He was perfect in the second-half alone, scoring 10 points on 3-of-3, 2-of- 2 from outside and 2-of-2 from the FT line; adding 4 points, 2 rebounds and an assist in overtime.

`D-Hop' came back two days later and finished with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting against the Demons, adding a team-best seven rebounds. He dished out three assists in each game, tying his season- best, while his three steals also tied his career high.

Hopkins Turning Up The Heat

Senior G Darren Hopkins has turned up his production since league play began five games ago. After 13 non-conference games he was averaging 7.9 points on 32 percent shooting (just 28 percent from outside) and 3.5 rebounds, but in the last five games his numbers have escalated to 13.2 ppg on 40 percent shooting (57 percent from outside) and 5.6 boards

Best shooters in the league?

Lamar Sanders is first in FG Pct at 65.2 pct, Currye Todd is first in 3-Point FG Pct at 49.1 pct and Kenny Dawkins is first in FT Pct. at 88.3 pct. No school has had two players lead the league in FG and FT shooting in the same season, let alone all three categories.

Seven-Game Skid Ends Against NW State...

Lamar's 91-82 win over Northwestern State snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Demons. The last win over a NW State squad came on Feb. 3, 2005 in Natchitoches. The 91 points scored by LU were the fifth-highest in series history.

... And 8-Game Road Skid Stopped At UCA

Lamar's 89-86 win at Central Arkansas was its first road victory of the year (1-6) and snapped an eightgame road losing streak that dated back to last season. The Cardinals' last win in an opponent's arena came at UCA last season. LU has won all three meetings with UCA since the Bears joined the SLC a year ago.

Lamar Plays Second-Consecutive OT Game

For just the third time in school history, Lamar played consecutive overtime games (SHSU and at UCA). In January of 1997, Grey Giovanini's squad actually played three-straight overtime games - going 2-1 - and actually had another two games after the last one for a stretch of four OT battles in five games. Pat Foster's 1981-82 bunch played free basketball in the second and third games of their season.

More Overtime Notes

Lamar is now 42-38 all-time in overtime games and 2-0 this season. The last time a Cardinal squad won two OT games in the same season came during the 1999-2000 campaign. Furthermore, it is just the fourth time to win two conference OT games (1976- 77, 94-95, 96-97).

Inside the NW State Box Score

Nine of the 10 players who saw action scored at least five points and played at least 12 minutes ... Lamar grabbed 20 offensive rebounds for the secondstraight game ... junior G Kenny Dawkins finished with a team-high 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting, including a career-high nine assists ... his 18 shot attempts were the most by a Cardinal this season ... junior F Jay Brown has his most productive game in a Lamar uniform, scoring a season-best 15 points on 4-of-5 shooting and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe ... he also set season-high in rebounds (5) and steals (3) in just 16 minutes.

Inside the UCA Box Score

Lamar tied a season-high with four blocked shots ... the Cardinals forced three 10-second and two shot clock violations ... junior F Jay Brown played a season- best 21 minutes and had two key blocks in overtime to go along with seven points, four boards and two assists - one of which came on a Matt Barrow 3- pointer to beat the first-half buzzer ... senior G Darren Hopkins scored a season-high 20 points ... senior F Lamar Sanders posted his third double-double of the year ... senior G Currye Todd tied his season- high with four 3-pointers (all in the first half) and 17 points.

Lamar In The NCAA Rankings

Lamar enters the McNeese State contest ranked in the top 60 in the NCAA in three categories: scoring offense-19th, assists per game-28th and steals per game-20th. Additionally, Kenny Dawkins ranks 17th in free throw percentage at 88.3 pct, 89th in assists per game at 4.5 and 82nd in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.93.

Sanders' .652 FG Pct Ranks Sixth In The Nation... Sort Of

Senior F Lamar Sanders leads the Southland in FG pct with a .652 clip (he also is shooting .725 in 5 SLC games) and ranks sixth in the NCAA ... sort of. His 88 field goals made average out to 4.9 per game, which is just shy of the 5.0 per game required by the NCAA. So, for him to appear in Tuesday's leaders he needs to make at least seven shots on Saturday.

http://lamarcardinals.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/020108aaa.html