With decisive wins Sunday afternoon, the Lubbock Christian University men’s and women’s basketball programs (16-0 and 13-0, respectively) both maintain their undefeated status as they face their final regular-season opponents Thursday night—and for the Lady Chaps, a national record is on the line.
With the defending national champion’s Sunday win against UT Permian Basin, the No.1 ranked Lady Chaps made their senior day win their 87th-consecutive home victory, tying the NCAA Division II women’s basketball record held by Nebraska-Kearney, set in 2001. With a win against divisional rival West Texas A&M on Thursday, the program would take sole possession of the record—and with a second win on Saturday against the same opponents, this time in Canyon, TX, they would complete a perfect regular-season record for the third time since joining the NCAA.
The men’s team, standing at a perfect 16-0—the best starting record in program history—comes into the weekend series ranked No.2 in the D2SIDA National Top-25 Poll (No.6 in the NABC National Top-25 Poll), but their divisional showdown against fourth-ranked WTA&M (9-1 on the season) will be a tough matchup. LCU’s scoring defense ranks third in the nation, allowing only 61.4 points per game, but it will face a tough test against WTA&M’s fifth-ranked scoring offense, which averages 93.6 points per game. The Chaps’ average scoring margin is one point better than the Buffs’, as the LCU squad averages its wins by a margin of 20 points.
The Lady Chaps face a similar battle as they face the No.16/No.21-ranked Lady Buffs, who have a regular season record of 14-3. LCU enters the contest leading the nation in scoring defense, allowing opponents only 44.9 points per game, over 10 points better than WTA&M’s strong 55.5-point average.
The Thursday contests tip off in the Rip Griffin Center at 5:30 p.m. for the women’s game, and 7:30 p.m. for the men. Online tickets are already sold out, but viewers can purchase access to livestreams of the games.