Lamar releases hoop schedule
Published 10:06 am Thursday, September 21, 2017
BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University men’s basketball team released its 2016-17 schedule announced head coach Tic Price Wednesday morning. The schedule is highlight by 15 home dates, including nine home Southland contests and a holiday tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.
“We certainly have a challenging schedule in our non-conference,” said LU head coach Tic Price. “This schedule is very tough for us. At the end of the day, we certainly have to be mentally tough to conquer every challenge that is ahead of us.
“As our program has grown, one of the things we’ve noticed is it has become very tough to get other programs to want to come to Beaumont. They know our personnel is better and we can pose problems for or competitors,” added Price.
The Cardinals open the new season on the road Friday, Nov. 10 at Tulsa. The game against the Golden Hurricane is slated to tip off at noon. It will be the fourth time in the last five years the Cardinals have opened a season away from the Montagne Center.
The Cardinals return from Tulsa to open a season-long four-game homestand Tuesday, Nov. 14 against Coastal Carolina. The game against the Chanticleers will be the first of two meetings against Coastal Carolina as Big Red will return the trip Saturday, Dec. 2. The rest of LU’s homestand will consist of Jarvis Christian (Nov. 16) and Cal State Bakersfield. The game against Bakersfield will tip off Sunday, Nov. 19 at 3 p.m. The Cardinals close out the homestand Wednesday, Nov. 22, against Southern University of New Orleans.
LU’s next away contest will take place Monday, Nov. 27, in El Paso, Texas against the UTEP Miners. The game at UTEP will tip off at 7 p.m. (8 p.m. Beaumont time). The Red and White will then have five days to prepare for the rematch with Coastal Carolina.
The Cardinals then return home for their final two home games before the start of Southland Conference play. Big Red will host St. Thomas Tuesday, Dec. 5, and will follow that up with a game against Howard Payne four days later.
Following the two game homestand, the Cardinals will hit the road for its longest stretch of games away from Beaumont, which will carry the Cardinals into the start of league play. The Cardinals will begin the four-game swing in Carbondale, Ill., Sunday, Dec. 17, against Southern Illinois. Following the game, LU will hop a flight headed for Pittsburgh, Pa., for the first-ever meeting against Duquesne (Dec. 19).
The Cardinals close out the road trip, and the non-conference portion of its schedule with two games in Las Vegas, Nev. before the Christmas break. LU will face UC Davis Friday, Dec. 22, and return to the court 24 hours later to take on either Radford or North Carolina A&T.
The Cardinals return home Thursday, Dec. 28, to open Southland Conference play against Houston Baptist. Big Red will once against host rivals McNeese and Stephen F. Austin in the Montagne Center during the 2017-18 campaign. The Cowboys visit Beaumont Saturday, Jan. 27, while SFA (Feb. 3) will open the month of February in Beaumont.
“There is not much that we can do about the conference schedule,” said Price. “The conference sets the league schedule and we have to be ready to play. The end of the conference schedule is going to be tough for us with five of our final seven games on the road. We have to accept that and be ready to play. If we can get some momentum, win a few of those road games and finish strong it could really help us as we prepare for the conference tournament.”
All home games will be played in the Montagne Center. All Saturday games will tip off at 4:30 p.m., and all week night games will get under way at 7 p.m. with the lone exception of the Nov. 16 doubleheader with the LU women’s team. The Nov. 16th game against Jarvis Christian will tip off at 7:30 p.m.
The Cardinals can once again be heard live on Newstalk 560 KLVI, with Harold Mann calling all the action. All LU home games will be streamed live on ESPN3 – unless picked up by television.