SAN ANGELO – With only three days between the last contest, Angelo State and McMurry University will meet again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in a non-conference basketball game at Stephens Arena in the Junell Center.
The Rams (7-0) are 32-19 all-time against the War Hawks (4-1) after last Friday's 73-70 win in Abilene in the first meeting between the two schools since the 1996-97 season. The seven wins by ASU to start this season has matched the 1981-82, 1993-94 and 2008-09 teams which started their seasons at 7-0 before taking a loss. A victory over McMurry on Tuesday would establish the best record to start a season in ASU program history and would surpass the win total of last year's 7-19 overall record.
"McMurry is a good team," ASU head coach
Chris Beard said. "They are difficult to guard because they have a balance between guard play and post play. We will have to play well to have a chance to win."
The game will be broadcasted on 1260AM KKSA with Jeremy Bryant on the call and will also be available to watch live through AngeloSports.com. ASU, which is one of 43 NCAA Division II teams with an undefeated record so far this season, is 4-0 at home entering the game.
Fifteen Rams have played this season and the team is shooting 54 percent from the field, while limiting their opponents to 37 percent shooting. ASU has a 110-69 assist advantage and a plus-26 turnover advantage. They are averaging 77.3 points per game and have held the six opponents to 64.1 points per game. The Rams are currently 10th in the nation in shooting percentage and 15th in the nation in opponent's shooting percentage. They are second in the Lone Star Conference in both categories to Tarleton State.
Coach Beard led McMurry to a 19-10 record last season as its head coach along with assistant coach
Cinco Boone in their first, and only season, in Abilene. The game also marks the return for ASU senior
Kenny Williams and sophomore
Thomas Brandsma. Williams averaged 20.1 points and 7.9 rebounds for the War Hawks in nine games before an injury ended his season, while Brandsma averaged 2.5 rebounds in 28 games as a freshman. Graduate assistant coach
Brock Kimball and graduate assistant strength coach
Dominick Walker also came to ASU after playing at McMurry last season.
Williams leads the Rams this season with 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds per game and 10 steals. He is currently third in the conference in points per game and is fifth in rebounding. The St. Louis, Mo. native has recorded three double-doubles with a 28/10 game against East Central, a 27/11 performance against York College and went for 12/10 last Saturday against Western New Mexico. Williams scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds last Friday in his return to Abilene. He also had the game-sealing steal with three seconds remaining in the game. He was named the Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week following the opening weekend of play and is shooting 18 of 21 from the free-throw line and 58 percent from the field on 86 shots.
Daniel Skinner is second on the team with 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game through the first six contests of the year. Skinner, who is a junior from Dallas, leads the Rams with eight blocks and has also contributed 19 assists and eight steals. He had 12 points, four assists and two steals against McMurry. He is shooting 64 percent from the field (35 of 56) and has one double-double with a 17/10 output against York College.
Bryan Hammond led the Rams with 15 points at McMurry after his second 19-point game of the season against WNMU two weeks ago. Hammond had 19 points and three assists against the Mustangs after also scoring 19 points against York College. Hammond, who went 6 for 6 from the field against the War Hawks, made all seven of his free throws in the win over WNMU and is shooting 72 percent from the line on 21 attempts. He leads the Rams with 31 assists and is also averaging 2.1 rebounds per game.
Tommy Woolridge (8 points),
Chantz Chambers (5.4) and
Omari Gudul (5.9) are providing additional offensive options for the Rams in their first seasons at ASU. Gudul scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds against the War Hawks and also has recorded a double-double with 13/12 effort earlier this season against York College. The sophomore forward, who transferred from Ranger College, is third on the team with 4.9 rebounds per game. Chambers, a freshman from Shreveport, La., scored 10 points against Arlington Baptist in his collegiate debut and then 13 points against Northern New Mexico last Friday. Woolridge hit the game-winning shot in ASU's 67-65 victory over Southwestern Oklahoma State and has scored in double-figures in three of the first six games of the season. Â
Reggie Sutton is averaging 5.3 points per game after scoring 11 points off the bench against McMurry, while Brandsma is averaging 4.3 points. Fellow sophomore
Nash Nelson has provided 10 assists with seniors
Ryan Marsh scoring 3.4 and securing 1.7 rebounds per game. Marsh led the Rams with two blocked shots in the win against McMurry.
Ice Asortse has 1.5/0.5 and
Chris Talkington is at 1.6 points per game.
McMurry (4-1) followed its three-point loss to the Rams with a 79-59 win over Bacone College last Saturday in Abilene. The War Hawks opened the season with a 3-0 record with wins over Texas-San Antonio, Sul Ross State and Open Bible College in its first three games. The War Hawks are shooting 48 percent from the field and are limiting opponents to 42 percent. Their most impressive win came in a 73-71 win over UTSA in San Antonio when junior forward Will Adams hit a half-court buzzer beater for the win.
Kourtney Goff leads the War Hawks this season with 16 points per game and 22 assists. A senior guard, originally from New York who transferred from Southern Illinois, Goff scored 17 points against UTSA after his season-high 21 points effort against Sul Ross State. He scored 16 against the Rams in the first meeting.
Brandon Golden has started the season strong with 14 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, including scoring 20 points in the win over UTSA. Golden, a 6-foot-4 junior guard from Austin, is shooting 50 percent on 3-pointers (10-20) and also leads the War Hawks with five steals and four blocks. He scored 15 points and had four rebounds against ASU last Friday. Â Alfred Perez led McM with 18 points against the Rams and is averaging 14.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in his senior season. Perez is shooting 53 percent from the center position and is tied with Golden for the team lead with five blocks this season.
The back-to-back games against McMurry is the only time this season the Rams face a team consecutively, and the experience could become useful in the postseason.
"Sometimes in college basketball you face the same opponent in back to back games at the end of the season and in the conference tournament," Beard said. "Maybe our two games with McMurry can help both teams later on in the season. Our biggest challenge and our main focus is how to play against a good team on Tuesday night, not the fact that we played them a few days ago."
UP NEXT: Angelo State will play Arkansas Fort Smith at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The game against the Lions will be played in Plano at Collin College in an in-region, neutral court game at Cougar Hall on the Spring Creek Campus. The Rams will then return home to face Oklahoma Wesleyan on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at the Junell Center before a pair of road games in Arkansas (Arkansas Tech, Dec. 19 and Arkansas-Monticell, Dec. 21).
