Thursday, Feb. 16
St. Mary's (14-9, 11-7) at West Texas A&M (18-6, 16-2) • 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 18
St. Mary's at Lubbock Christian (16-8, 12-6) • 3 p.m.
Opening Tip
•   St. Mary's heads out of East Division play in the Lone Star Conference, playing at West Texas A&M on Thursday and Lubbock Christian on Saturday.
•   The game on Thursday will be the first in Canyon for the Rattlers since Feb. 25, 1941 - a span of 82 years. Both meetings since StMU joined the Lone Star have been in San Antonio in 2019 and 2022 as the teams didn't face each other in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic. In 1999 and 2001, the two squads played at neutral sites.
•   In both wins last week, the Rattlers had five players score in double digits. StMU defeated Oklahoma Christian by 14 and UAFS by 16 to complete the season sweep over both squads. The quintet all averaged between 11.5 and 16.5 per game. The rest of the team scored 20 points over the two contests.
•   St. Mary's remains in the top spot in the Lone Star Conference in three-point field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 30.1 percent. That also ranks 15th in the nation.
•   Senior Caleb Jordan scored the 1,500th point of his career with his third 25-plus scoring game of the season against DBU and now has 1538. Jordan is now 43 points shy of tying legendary coach Buddy Meyer for sixth on the school's career charts.
•   Emmanuel Ewuzie is currently the top shot-blocker in the Lone Star and 17th in the nation, averaging 1.96 blocks per game. He has 45 this season, which breaks the previous record of 44 by Erik Coleman (1993-94). For his career, Ewuzie has 99 swats to rank 2nd, 13 off the school record of 112 by Kevin Kotzur (2010-13).
•   The StMU defense has held seven of the last nine opponents below 65 points and limited six to fewer than 60 points. The Rattlers have climbed to second in the Lone Star and 21st in the nation, allowing 64.7 points per game.
•   The Rattlers currently have two players ranked in the top-10 in the Lone Star Conference in free throw percentage as Tyler Caron sits in fifth at 88.1 and Caleb Jordan ranks sixth at 87.4.
