This Week in Rattlers Basketball
Game #31 • Neutral Game #5 • Eastern New Mexico • Saturday, March 14 • 2:30 p.m.
Notes & Connections
• This will be the first time that Eastern New Mexico and St. Mary's will meet in the postseason. The Greyhounds won the first-ever meeting in Las Vegas in a tournament in Dec. 2004.
• The series is tied at 4-4, with the Rattlers winning each of the last two contests.
• The Rattlers are 1-0 this season against ENMU, winning 63-54 in Portales on Jan. 19.
• The game pits two of the five members of the LSC All-Defensive team against each other in post players Olaverr Camacho from StMU and Jose Murillo from ENMU.
• This is the 4th appearance for ENMU in the NCAA Regionals and the 11th for StMU.
• ENMU leads the nation in field goal percentage, shooting 51.5 from the field, while St. Mary's leads the LSC in scoring defense at 66.6 points/game.
On This Date: March 14
• StMU is 2-4 in games played on March 14, with a 2-2 record on a neutral floor. All four games at a neutral site came in Kansas City at the NAIA Championships.
• The Rattlers are 0-2 on the 14th in the NCAA Regional, losing twice at Tarleton State in 2003 & 2015.
Back-to-Back: St. Mary's Men's Basketball earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. The Rattlers are the seven seed and will faced second-seeded Eastern New Mexico in the South Central Regional at DBU on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
NCAA Tournament History: The Rattlers are appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in school history. It is the second time the team has been the seven seed, losing in 2004 to Washburn 81-70 in the First Round. For a full look at the Rattlers in the NCAA Tournament, see page 7 of these notes.
Making History: The 94-80 win over Western New Mexico at the Lone Star Conference Tournament was the first-ever win for the Rattlers. St. Mary's is now 1-4 all-time at the league championship, falling twice to Texas A&M-Kingsville, and once each to DBU and St. Edward's.
Twenty Times Two: For the first time in the school's Division II era, the team has won 20+ games in back-to-back seasons. A year ago, the Rattlers finished 20-11, while this season's team is 21-9. The last time teams won 20 or more in consecutive years was 1996-97 and 1997-98 when Bubba Meyer's father, Buddy, was the head coach.
Within Striking Distance: St. Mary's ranks third in the Lone Star and 59th in the nation with 3.8 blocked shots per game, and fifth in the LSC and 56th in the nation with 8.5 steals per game. The team has swatted 115 shots this season, which is the second-most in school history and just 10 off the record of 125 by the 2008-09 team. They also have collected 256 steals, which is second on the single-season charts and six off the record of 262 by the 1993-94 team.
Call the 4s: Sophomore guard Lawyer Jones became the fourth Rattler this season to record a 20-plus point scoring game when he collected a career-high 20 points in the Lone Star Tournament quarterfinals against Western New Mexico. Jones joins Justin Britt (twice), Damani Claxton (seven times) and Eddie McPhee (once) as players with 20 or more in a game this season.
Wayne's World: Senior guard Wayne Wiggins tied for the most free throws made this season by a Rattler when he went 11-for-12 at the line in the Lone Star Tournament quarterfinals against Western New Mexico. Fellow senior Damani Claxton also made 11 in an 11-for-13 night against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Dec. 20.
Hitting 50: Head Coach Bubba Meyer won his 50th game with the team's 80-73 win at Sul Ross State on Feb. 19. Meyer is in his third season as head coach with a 53-36 overall record. This season's team tied for the fourth most home wins with 14, matching the 1982-83 team that his father coached. The 1994-95 team was 16-1 for the record for home wins.
Ain't It Grand: Senior Damani Claxton scored the 1,000th point of his career in the win over St. Edward's on Feb. 26 and now has 1,043. Claxton has scored 949 of those 1,043 points in two seasons at St. Mary's. His 949 points ranks as the fifth-most by a Rattler in the Division II era (2000-present), trailing Kevin Kotzur (2,004 points, 2010-13), Caleb Jordan (1,625 pts, 2019-23), Billy White (1,261 pts, 2002-05), and Tyler Caron (1,095 pts, 2021-24).
Pounding the Paint: Five times this season, and in each of the final two games of the regular season, St. Mary's has scored at least 50 points in the paint. The Rattlers scored 50 down low against St. Edward's on Feb. 26 and then scored a season-high 52 points (of 81) in the paint against Cameron on Saturday, Feb. 28.
Perfection: Damani Claxton was a perfect 10-for-10 at the free throw line in the game at Western New Mexico, becoming the 15th player in school history to not miss at the line (minimum 10 attempts), and the first since Caleb Jordan on Dec. 19, 2018 against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Quite a Handful: Senior Sebastian Mendoza became the first Rattler this season to make five three-pointers in a game, going 5-for-5 from beyond the arc in the win over UT Permian Basin. Mendoza scored a season-high 17 points in the lopsided win. He is the only player in the Lone Star Conference to have made all five attempts in a game this season.
Making them Count: St. Mary's has shot 80 percent or better from the free throw line in 13 games this season, and is connecting at a 75.6 percent clip for the season. That percentage ranks second in the Lone Star Conference and 37th in the nation, quite a change from last season's squad that shot only 62.7 percent and ranked 285th out of 290 teams in Division II. The 75.6 percent ranks fourth in school history and second in the NCAA Division II era (2000-present) behind the 2021-22 team that shot 75.8 percent.
Take Two, They're Free: A big reason for the change in free throw percentage are seniors Damani Claxton and Eddie McPhee. Claxton leads the Lone Star and ranks 33rd nationally with his 87.7 percent. McPhee has made 54 of 63 attempts this season for 85.7 percent, but doesn't meet the 2.5 makes minimum to appear in the league stats.
Early Start Important: St. Mary's is 20-2 this season when leading at halftime, and only 1-6 when entering the locker room trailing at the break. The Rattlers are also 18-5 when out-rebounding the opponent and 2-2 when giving up more boards than they collect.
All-Conference: For the second-straight season, senior Damani Claxton was named to the Lone Star All-Conference First Team, while senior Olaverr Camacho was voted by the league's coaches to the Second Team and to the All-Defensive team and junior Justin Britt was an honorable mention selection. Claxton is the first two-time First-Team selection for the Rattlers since joining the Lone Star Conference and the first in any league since Kevin Kotzur earned the honors all four years (2010-2013).
