Men's Basketball Begins Second Round of East Division Play

This Week in Rattlers Basketball
at Texas A&M International • Thursday, January 30 • 7:30 p.m. 
#RV St. Mary's (14-4, 11-1)
Head Coach: Bubba Meyer (26-20)
at Texas A&M International (10-12, 5-8)
Head Coach: Mac McConnell (73-103)
Broadcast: FloCollege

at Texas A&M-Kingsville • Saturday, February 1 • 3 p.m.
#RV St. Mary's (14-4, 11-1)
Head Coach: Bubba Meyer (26-20)
at Texas A&M-Kingsville (9-10, 5-8)
Head Coach: Omar Gonzalez (15-32)
Broadcast: FloCollege

 

Return Trip: St. Mary's moves back into East Division play in the Lone Star Conference, traveling to Texas A&M International on Thursday and Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday. The eight-game winning streak started with a pair of victories over these two teams to kick off 2025.

History with Texas A&M International: The Rattlers improved to 26-14 all-time against the Dustdevils with the 72-62 win on Jan. 5. St. Mary's holds a 12-6 lead in games played in Laredo, though TAMIU edged out the Rattlers, 73-70 a season ago.

Scouting the Dustdevils: Texas A&M International is 10-12 overall and 5-8 in league play, and they've split each of the last three weeks. The Dustdevils have the second-most bench production in the LSC, with 28.91 points from non-starters per game. Anthony Ignowski is the only player averaging double figures in points, averaging 12.5 per game, and he leads with 3.0 assists a night. Duncan Alevok ranks fourth in the Lone Star with 1.14 blocks per game, while Emaniel Alexandre leads the club with 4.6 rebounds.

History with Texas A&M-Kingsville: St. Mary's grabbed a 67-66 lead in the back-and-forth series with the Javelinas with the thrilling 83-81 overtime victory on Jan. 3. Texas A&M-Kingsville owns a 36-28 lead in games played in Kingsville and won 80-78 in overtime a season ago.

Scouting the Javelinas: Texas A&M-Kingsville is 9-10 overall and also 5-8 in Lone Star action, hosting St. Edward's on Thursday. The Javelinas have split each of the last three weeks and are coming off a 73-58 win over Sul Ross State. TAMUK ranks second in the LSC, turning the ball over only 10.7 times per game and Allen Singleton is fifth with a 1.94 assist-to-turnover ratio, as well as 1.70 steals to rank seventh. Isaiah Payne leads the club with 15.9 points per game, while Singleton averages 10.1, and Nate Lacewell paces the team with 4.7 rebounds a night.

Rare Opportunity: A win over Texas A&M International would give the Rattlers a perfect 9-0 record in January, and they would become only the seventh team in 92 years to post an undefeated mark in the first month of the calendar year. Both the 1972-73 and 1974-75 teams were 9-0, while the 1983-84 and 1984-85 clubs were 8-0, and the 1969-70 team was 6-0. The only Division II era team to go undefeated was the 2003-04 team, which was 8-0.

Metric System: One of the metrics used by the NCAA selection committee to pick teams in the tournament is the KPI. KPI ranks every team's wins and losses on a positive-to-negative scale, where the worst-possible loss receives a value of roughly -1.0 and the best-possible win receives a value of roughly 1.0. KPI then averages these scores across a season to give a score to a team's winning percentage. The formula uses opponent's winning percentage, opponent's strength of schedule, scoring margin, pace of game, location, and opponent's KPI ranking. The Rattlers are currently the top team in the South Central Region, ranking 19th nationally. St. Mary's moved ahead of Colorado School of Mines, which fell to 22nd this week. DBU ranks 25th, while Lubbock Christian is 31, Midwestern State is 33 and MSU Denver is 50.

Regionally Ranked: St. Mary's climbed one spot to fourth in the D2CSC South Central Regional Rankings. The Rattlers are receiving 41 points, six points behind #3 Midwestern State. DBU claimed the top-spot in the region with five first-place votes and 59 points, while Colorado School of Mines dropped to second with 55 votes. MSU Denver fell from second to fifth this week.

Steady Eddie: Junior Eddie McPhee had a strong week last week, scoring a career-best 16 points against UT Permian Basin on Saturday, while he dished out a career-best six assists on Thursday in the win over Angelo State. McPhee was 6-for-7 from the floor, hit both three-point attempts and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the two games. He also blocked two shots and grabbed 11 rebounds. McPhee has scored at least two points and grabbed one or more rebounds in all 18 games this season.

Hot Start: 
• The 8-0 start to 2025 guarantees the Rattlers its third straight winning month with only one game remaining in January. StMU finished 3-2 in both November and December. 
• The win at Oklahoma Christian established a new StMU record for consecutive road victories in Lone Star Conference play. The team has won five straight on the road, breaking the mark of four straight by the 2022-23 team.

Claxton Collects: Damani Claxton added a seventh 20-plus scoring game to his resume with a career-best 27 in the win at Cameron. Claxton leads the Rattlers with 17.3 points per game and he's reached double digits in 14 straight. He ranks second in the LSC with his 17.3 per game, trailing only the 17.5 from Ahamed Mohammed at West Texas A&M.

Party Time! Excellent!: Since turning the calendar to January, junior transfer Wayne Wiggins has stepped up his game. In the eight contests, Wiggins is averaging 10.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. The Mansfield, Texas native has provided a spark off the bench, scoring in double figures in five of the seven games, and multiple steals in four. He has at least one assist and one rebound in all eight during the stretch.

Tops in the LSC: Senior forward Lachlan Bofinger leads the Lone Star Conference in both double-doubles (9) and defensive rebounds per game (6.89). He also ranks second in rebounds per game (9.8), and is third in offensive rebounds (2.89), while junior Damani Claxton ranks second in scoring (17.3). The Rattlers lead the league and rank 10th nationally with 14.39 offensive rebounds per game and are second in the LSC and 24th nationally in rebound margin at +6.6.

It's An Honor x 2: Junior guard Damani Claxton was named the Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Week after the team's wins over WNMU and SRS, while Lachlan Bofinger earned Offensive Player of the Week after the team defeated both Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas A&M International to start 2025, and Defensive honors after the team swept the Oklahoma road trip.

Closing In: Franklin Agu needs three points for 400 in his career, while Sebastian Mendoza is 20 points shy of the same milestone. Mendoza also needs 19 rebounds for 200.