This Week in Rattlers Basketball
at Midwestern State • Thursday, November 21 • 7:30 p.m.
St. Mary's (2-1)
Head Coach: Bubba Meyer (14-17)
at Midwestern State (3-1)
Head Coach: Justin Leslie (332-194)
at Lubbock Christian • Saturday, November 23 • 3 p.m.
St. Mary's (2-1)
Head Coach: Bubba Meyer (14-17)
at Lubbock Christian (2-2)
Head Coach: Todd Duncan (246-136)
Early Start: St. Mary's Men's Basketball starts Lone Star Conference action early this year, playing at Midwestern State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Lubbock Christian on Saturday at 3 p.m. November 21 ties for the earliest conference game in school history, tying the 2019-20 team, which opened at Texas A&M Commerce with a 79-78 victory.
History with Midwestern State: The Rattlers and Mustangs are deadlocked at 19 games each in the all-time series that began back in 1975. The Rattlers are 6-15 in games in Wichita Falls and 2-3 against MSU in the LSC era. Midwestern State has won the last three games, including a 108-104 overtime thriller a year ago at MSU. Each team has topped the 100-point milestone twice in the series, with the Mustangs winning both high-scoring affairs (110-100, Jan. 2, 1981).
History with Lubbock Christian: The Rattlers are 5-12 all-time against Lubbock Christian and are looking to snap an eight-game losing skid to the Chaps. The last win for StMU in the series happened on Dec. 31, 2016 at Bill Greehey Arena. StMU is 1-7 all-time in Lubbock , with the lone win happening the first time the teams played there, Jan. 2, 2014. The series began in 1992 with two games in that calendar year, then took a 22-year hiatus until 2014 when LCU joined the Heartland Conference.
A Look Back: St. Mary's was efficient in a wire-to-wire 89-45 win at Sul Ross State. The Rattlers shot 58.5 percent from the floor for the game, including 66.7 percent in the second half. All 11 Rattlers who played in the game scored at least one point and had one or more rebounds. Seven of the 11 also recorded a steal as the team swiped a season-best 11. Five players scored in double figures, led by junior guard Damani Claxton's career-high 20 points. Freshman Lawyer Jones added a career-high 13 points, while senior Lachlan Bofinger, junior Eman Lawal and senior Sebastian Mendoza each scored 10. Junior Malcolm Steadman tied for game-high honors in rebounds with seven as the Rattlers out-rebounded the Lobos 38-to-24 and limited SRS to four offensive rebounds.
A Perfect 10: Three games into the season and St. Mary's has already had seven players score 10 or more points in a contest. Only Damani Claxton has hit double figures in all three games, but Lachlan Bofinger, Eman Lawal and Wayne Wiggins have done so twice. Claxton currently ranks eighth in the Lone Star Conference with 16.7 points per game. The junior transfer also ranks eighth in the league in field goal percentage, shooting 54.5 percent.
Stop, Thieves: Both Wayne Wiggins (2nd) and Damani Claxton (5th) currently rank among the top five in the Lone Star Conference in steals per game. Wiggins is averaging 2.67 per contest, while Claxton is right behind him with 2.33 a game. Both totals are also ranked in the top 85 in the NCAA Division II statistics.
Three Games, Three Lineups: Head Coach Bubba Meyer has experimented with the first five on the floor, using three different starting lineups through the first three games. Lachlan Bofinger, Damani Claxton and Wayne Wiggins have been on the floor for opening tip in all three.
Lach-ing It In: Senior Lachlan Bofinger led the Lone Star Conference and ranked seventh nationally in double-doubles a year ago and has added one in the first three games of 2024-25. The Australian forward tallied 14 double-doubles in 2023-24. His 14 games with 10 or more points and rebounds ranks second in school history behind the 19 by Kevin Kotzur in 2012-13. This season, Bofinger ranks fourth in the Lone Star in rebounds per game with 7.3 and is fourth with 3.00 o-boards a contest.
Double Trouble: The Rattlers return three letterwinners off last season's team in forwards Franklin Agu and Lachlan Bofinger and guard Diego Gonzalez. In 2023-24, Agu and Bofinger became the 15th pair to record double-doubles in the same game as they did so against Texas A&M International on Feb. 1. They are the first pair to accomplish the feat twice as Agu had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Bofinger had 15 points and 11 rebounds in the 82-80 win over St. Edward's on Feb. 27 in the final home game of the year.
Crashing the Boards: In his first season with the Rattlers last year, forward Lachlan Bofinger grabbed 247 rebounds, the 16th highest total in St. Mary's history and the third-highest since joining the Division II ranks. His 8.82 rebounds per game also ranks 17th on the single season charts, and is second in the DII era, trailing only Kevin Kotzur's average of 10.42 from 2012-13.
Preseason Poll: With a largely unknown roster, St. Mary's was predicted to finish 12th in the 16-team Lone Star Conference by the league's head coaches, media, and sports information staffs. NCAA Division II semifinalist West Texas A&M, winners of 10 LSC championships, has been chosen to win the Lone Star in 2024-25.
A Quick Look at the Schedule: With 16 teams in the Lone Star Conference, the league will 22-game schedule, where teams play each team in their division twice and the teams in the other division once. The Rattlers are in the East Division with Cameron, DBU, Oklahoma Christian, St. Edward's, Texas A&M International, Texas A&M-Kingsville, and UT Tyler. The top eight teams will qualify for the LSC Tournament, happening March 5-8 in Frisco, Texas. Division winners will automatically qualify for the tournament but are not guaranteed a top two seed.
