No. 7 Men's Basketball Looks to Make History on Thursday

This Week in Rattlers Basketball
at DBU • Thursday, December 11 • 7 p.m.
Notes & Connections
•    DBU leads the series with St. Mary's, 24-11.
•    StMU snapped a 12-game losing streak to DBU last season in Dallas, 88-83 in overtime on Jan. 9, 2025.
•    This is the third-straight meeting where at least one of the two teams is nationally-ranked.
•    DBU leads the nation with 15.9 steals per game
•    St. Mary's ranks sixth nationally in free throw percentage, 80.4.
•    This is DBU head coach Blake Flickner's 20th season at DBU.
•    Neither team has ever scored 100 points during the series that began in 2007.
•    The two teams have met in the post-season only once, a 72-68 win for the Patriots in the Heartland Conference Tournament Semifinals on March 6, 2009.

The Series
Overall    35    11-24
Home    15    4-11
    Bill Greehey Arena    15    4-11
Away    19    7-12
Neutral    1    0-1
Overtime    2    2-0
With StMU in top-25    1    0-1
vs. top-25 DBU Team    2    1-1
LSC Era     9    1-8
Bubba Meyer Era    4    1-3

On This Date: Dec. 11
•    StMU is 10-12 all-time in games played on Dec. 11.
•    The Rattlers have won two of the last three on Dec. 11, last losing to UTPB in 2021 (76-68).
•    DBU and StMU have never squared off on Dec. 11 in the 35-game history.

First Road Test: The St. Mary's Men's Basketball team will play its first road game of the season on Thursday at DBU. The Rattlers opened the season with seven straight at home, posting a 7-0 record. The Patriots are 6-4 on the season, but have won four straight, including a pair of 100+-scoring games against Adams State (113-60) and at Texas A&M-Kingsville last week (105-71).

Matching History: The Rattlers look to match the best start in school history at 8-0 with a win over DBU on Thursday. The 1975-76 team won eight straight before falling in game nine to Division I Houston, 78-87 on Dec. 13. That team finished 22-6 overall, advancing to the District IV Playoffs after winning the Big State Conference with a 10-2 record.

Double Trouble: Eddie McPhee became the 50th Rattler in the Division II era to record a double-double with his game-high 17 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Western New Mexico on Thursday. The 11 rebounds are a career-high for the senior, while the 17 points are one off his career-best of 18 from earlier this season against Regis.

History with DBU: The Patriots own a 24-11 lead in the all-time series, though the Rattlers snapped a 12-game losing streak to DBU in Dallas last season with the 88-83 overtime win. Thursday will be the 20th game in the series on the DBU campus (7-12) and the 10th game between the teams since they joined the Lone Star Conference (1-8).

Scouting the Patriots: DBU is 6-4 on the season, but has won four straight. The Patriots return 12 players from last season's 34-5 team that advanced to the national semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. Xavion Brown leads the nation with 32 steals, leads the LSC with 4.9 assists per game and leads the team with 5.8 rebounds per game. Bishop Jones leads a quartet of players in double figures in scoring with 15.1 per game. DBU leads the nation with 15.9 steals per game and is sixth with 29.6 free throw attempts per game, but they rank 277th in free throw percentage (62.8).

They're Free: St. Mary's spent a lot of last weekend at the free throw line, scoring 54 of its 164 points (32.9%) at the charity stripe. The 29 free throws made against Sul Ross State on Saturday are a season-high, bettering the 25 the team sank on Thursday against Western New Mexico. The Rattlers currently lead the Lone Star Conference with an 80.4 free throw percentage, ranking sixth in Division II, quite a change from last year where the Rattlers ranked 285th out of 290 teams with a 62.7 percentage.

Ranked Seventh: In the December 9 NABC poll, the St. Mary's team climbed two more places to No. 7. It is the team's highest-ever ranking during the NCAA Division II era. In 1969-70, the Rattlers earned a high ranking of No. 4 and were inside the top-10 for the final eight weeks of the season at NAIA. The 1974-75 team also spent the final seven weeks in the top-10. 

Pouring It In: The 57 points scored by the Rattlers in the second half against Sul Ross State on Saturday are the most scored in either half in the Bubba Meyer era. The previous high was 56 in the second half against the Lobos on Dec. 7, 2024.

Team Basketball: In seven games this season, the Rattlers have had five different players lead the team in scoring, with only senior Damani Claxton leading more than once, as he led the team in the first three games. Justin Britt, Michael Grant, Eddie McPhee and JJ Walton have all led the team once. Ten different Rattlers have scored in double digits at least once in the first seven contests.

Closing In: Senior Sebastian Mendoza needs four points for 500 in his career. He has scored 234 points as a Rattler, totaled 154 points at San Jose State and 108 at Tennessee-Martin. Fellow senior Wayne Wiggins is also 19 points shy of 300 and 11 rebounds away from 100 in his time in the Gold & Blue.

Unblemished November: For the seventh time in school history, the Rattlers were undefeated in the month of November (minimum two games played). The 5-0 start matches the 1982-83 team for most wins in the 11th month of the year.

Lucky No. 13: St. Mary's is one of 13 remaining unbeaten teams in Division II, joining Daemen (10-0), Washburn (10-0), West Texas A&M (9-0), Lubbock Christian (8-0), Palm Beach Atlantic (8-0), Southern Nazarene (8-0), Anderson (7-0), Arkansas-Fort Smith (7-0), Cal State East Bay (7-0), North Georgia (7-0), Miles (6-0) and Nova Southeastern (6-0). The Lone Star Conference leads all leagues with three undefeated teams, while the MIAA and the Sunshine State each have two clubs.

Making Them Count: Senior Damani Claxton currently ranks 42nd among all active Division II players in career free throw percentage, shooting .825 over his 67 games (141-171). Claxton currently leads the Lone Star Conference with a .929 (26-28) percentage this season, which ranks 26th nationally. 

D-D-D-Defense: The Rattlers lead the league and rank eighth nationally in scoring defense, allowing opponents to score only 60.9 points per game. Malone leads the nation, giving up only 56.6 points per contest. StMU ranked 40th a season ago, surrendering 68.7 points a night.

Triple Threat: Michael Grant became the first true freshman to hit three three-pointers in a game since Jaron Presley hit four on both Dec. 14, 2019 and Feb. 29, 2020 in his first season. Grant scored a career-best 15 points in the win over Sul Ross State on Wednesday, sinking 3-of-7 from the three-point line.

Preseason Honor: Senior Damani Claxton was honored before the first ball even tipped in the air, as he was named the Lone Star Conference Preseason Player of the Year in a vote by the league's head coaches, media, and sports information personnel. Claxton is averaging 18.0 points per game this season and has scored at least a dozen in all four contests. The guard is also a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line and is one of 33 (min. 2.5 made/game) to remain unblemished on the year. 

Picked Second: St. Mary's was chosen to finish second in the 2025-26 Lone Star Conference race. DBU totaled 850 points and collected 42 of the possible 51 first-place votes to be the favorite in the poll. The Rattlers received 724 points and two first-place votes for second, while Lubbock Christian (4, 720) is third, St. Edward's (0, 669) and West Texas A&M (2, 654) round out the top five. It is the highest-ever predicted finish for the Rattlers since joining the LSC in 2019-20.