This Week in Rattlers Basketball
ALUMNI NIGHT • Western New Mexico • Thursday, December 5 • 7:30 p.m.
Western New Mexico (1-5, 1-0)
Head Coach: Mark Bunker (5-28)
at St. Mary's (3-2, 1-1)
Head Coach: Bubba Meyer (15-18)
Broadcast: FloCollege. Play-by-Play: Rob Shadow
JINGLE MART DONATIONS • Sul Ross State • Saturday, December 7 • 3 p.m.
Sul Ross State (1-4, 0-1)
Head Coach: Xavier Webb (39-63)
at St. Mary's (3-2, 1-1)
Head Coach: Bubba Meyer (15-18)
Broadcast: FloCollege. Play-by-Play: Rob Shadow
Finally Home: St. Mary's Men's Basketball will finally play a home game after being on the road for the entire month of November. The Rattlers continue Lone Star Conference play hosting Western New Mexico for Alumni Night on Thursday and Sul Ross State on Saturday for the annual Jingle Mart donation game. To register for Alumni Night, please visit: https://alumni.stmarytx.edu/events/alumni-athletics-night-basketball/. To see gift ideas for the South Texas Alliance for Orphans, please visit: https://alliance4orphans.org/jinglemart/.
History with Western New Mexico: The Rattlers have won six straight against the Mustangs and are 9-2 in a history that started in 1992. StMU is a perfect 6-0 at home and this will be the fifth meeting in the last six contests to take place inside Bill Greehey Arena.
Scouting the Mustangs: WNMU is 1-5 on the year, but the one win is a 69-57 decision over Sul Ross State in Lone Star Conference play. Isaiah Marin leads the team with 13.3 points, though Carson Kelly is right behind him with 13.2 per game. Marin also leads the team with 5.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game.
History with Sul Ross State: With the 89-45 lopsided win on Nov. 15, the Rattlers are now 16-13 all-time against Sul Ross State and have won eight in a row in the series that started way back in 1936. The Rattlers are 10-7 at home against the Lobos with a 3-0 record at Bill Greehey Arena. This will be the first game between the two teams in LSC play.
Scouting the Lobos: Sul Ross State is 1-4 on the year and 0-1 in LSC play with the loss to WNMU. Ethan Yancy leads a trio of Lobos in double figure scoring, averaging 16.4 points per game. Bryce Harris averages a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game. Without the 129 points SRS put up against Navajo Tech, the team is getting outscored by 26.5 points per game in the other four contests.
Looking to Break the Trend: Through the first five games of the season, the Rattlers have alternated wins and losses. StMU is hoping coming home helps snap the streak and gives them its first winning streak of the year. In the three wins, the Rattlers averaged only 9.0 turnovers per game, while in the two losses the team averaged 15.0 turnovers.Â
It Had Been A While: The win over Lubbock Christian on Nov. 23 snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Chaps and was the first win at the Rip Griffin Center since the first meeting back in 2014.
First Meeting: St. Mary's was efficient in a wire-to-wire 89-45 win at Sul Ross State in the first meeting this season. 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: Five games into the season and St. Mary's has already had eight players score 10 or more points in a contest. Damani Claxton has hit double figures in four of the five games, while Lachlan Bofinger has done so three times. Lawyer Jones, Eman Lawal, Sebastian Mendoza and Wayne Wiggins have all done so twice, and Franklin Agu and Eddie McPhee each have one game with 10 or more.
Talk to our Lawyer: Lawyer Jones is the first true freshman to play at St. Mary's since Norman Beckford in 2020-21. Jones is averaging 7.0 points and 1.8 rebounds per game coming off the bench for the Rattlers. Beckford played in 11 games during the Covid shortened season, starting six. He averaged 6.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
Five Games, Five Lineups: Head Coach Bubba Meyer has experimented with the first five on the floor, using five different starting lineups through the first five games. Only Lachlan Bofinger and Damani Claxton have been on the floor for opening tip in all five.
Lach-ing It In: Senior Lachlan Bofinger currently ranks third in the Lone Star Conference in rebounds per game (8.8) and second in offensive rebounds per game (4.0). Bofinger currently ranks 12th in the nation in offensive rebounds and 34th in total rebounds. He also ranks 34th nationally with two double-doubles.
Dropping Dimes: Both Damani Claxton and Malcolm Steadman have recorded multiple assists in each of the last three games. Claxton has eight assists during the stretch (3, 3, 2), while Steadman has seven (3, 2, 2). The two have combined for 19 assists this season, with 15 of those in the last three.
A Second Chance: St. Mary's leads the Lone Star Conference and ranks 13th nationally in offensive rebounds per game with 15.60 per game. Crashing the offensive glass has resulted in 60 second-chance points (12.0 per game) for the Gold and Blue.
