SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State men's basketball team hits the road for the first time this season with a pair of post-Thanksgiving games this weekend in San Antonio at Greehey Arena in the St. Mary's Invitational.

The Rams (2-0) open play at 5 p.m. on Friday against Minnesota-Duluth before playing St. Mary's at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. UMD comes into the game with a 1-1 record after earning a 70-58 win over Michigan Tech in its last game following opening its season with a loss to Wisconsin-Parkside. St. Mary's is 2-0 on the year after opening with wins over Incarnate Word and Concordia.

“It's the first time that we've competed away from home so it will be new for our guys,” ASU head coach Fred Rike said. “We're going to have to adapt to a different atmosphere with playing on the road and on back-to-back days. We'll have a different kind of schedule because of the holiday.”

ASU is scoring 83 points per game through its first two contests (wins over Lubbock Christian and Arlington Baptist) and are shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc (15-for-34).The Rams have a -6.5 turnover margin and have grabbed 11 rebounds per game more than their opponents.

Dakota Rawls and Bryan Hammond are scoring 12 points per game through the first two contests, while Chris Talkington scored 25 points in his first game of the season on Sunday against Arlington Baptist. Ryan Marsh leads the Rams with 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots, while Hammond is averaging 4.5 assists per game.  

“I like how we're playing together and the guys are really trying to get out there and improve every day,” Rike said. “They are working really hard. There are areas that we have to improve on, but we are shooting the ball extremely well right now and they're very coachable.”

Additional Quotes

Fred Rike  // ASU head coach

On Minnesota-Duluth:
They run a motion offense and look like a very good team from what we've seen on tape. They play a very discipline style of basketball and they can shoot it. They will be tough to guard and we're going to have to step up our defensive game against them.

On St. Mary's:
They have some great players with a lot of experience. We've always had some great battles against those guys and it should be another great game.