Lamar has lost three home games by a total of 18 points. And in each of those losses, the Cardinals found themselves having to claw back to make a game of it.
Two of those losses, however, are part of a three-game losing streak that has the Cardinals stuck near the cellar of the Southland Conference.
“We’ve got to learn how to win, and we’ve got to strangle victory from the jaws of defeat,” coach Tic Price said.
Lamar (9-7, 1-3 Southland) will have to today at the Montagne Center against Northwestern State (3-11, 0-4), which has dropped four in a row.
The Demons were beset in the season opener by an injury to Southland preseason player of the year candidate Jalan West. Junior Zeek Woodley, who entered the season the nation’s leading returner scorer at 22.2 points per game, is averaging nearly 23 this season, almost accounting for one-third of Northwestern State’s 75.9 per game. But the defense has given up almost 87 per game, ranking last in the Southland.
“When you lose a guy like that, it’s hard to replace,” Price said. “But the way they play, they’re going to guard you hard, and they’ve got some experience. The teams in the Southland Conference in the past, anyway, with the most experience are the teams that experience the most success.”
That’s been the case in recent games the Cardinals have played.
New Orleans and Central Arkansas sported a combined 5-18 record before playing Lamar but came away with victories. While New Orleans has as much youth on its roster as Lamar, Central Arkansas has only one freshman and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (12-3, 3-0) — one of four unbeaten teams in league play — has six seniors.
“Corpus Christi, two or three years ago, was where we are now,” Price said. “They grew together. Now, they’re a team that’s got a chance to challenge for a championship.”
The Cardinals, meanwhile, are still experiencing growing pains.
On Monday they led Corpus Christi 74-73 with 4:47 left, after fighting back from an early 15-point deficit. But the Islanders closed out the game on an 18-8 run, and it didn’t help that senior center LeMon Gregory and junior forward Preston Mattingly had fouled out.
“We probably had three freshmen on the court down the stretch, but they grew up tonight,” Price said. “By then, we were forced to play with three freshmen and we did a good job.”
One of the freshmen, guard Nick Garth, had 25 points against the Islanders.
“We didn’t run out of gas,” Garth said. “We just had a lack of execution on the offensive end. We didn’t get to execute our plays like we wanted to, and they cashed in on those mistakes.”
Today, the Cardinals look to come out of the gate hard-charging. If that doesn’t happen, they’ll just try to live up to Price’s motto and hope they’ve made up enough ground to win.
“You know coach Price, his motto is ‘Keep on fighting. We get down, we keep on fighting, and that’s how we got back into the game,’” freshman forward Josh Nzeakor said.