It goes without saying: Lamar’s men’s basketball team has had it rough.

Lamar has lost six of its past seven games and given up 82 or more points in its past six games. That would include an 86-82 home win against Northwestern State two weeks ago.

But the Cardinals have not won on the road in four weeks (0-3 since a 79-67 win at Nicholls State), they’ve lost their last three by an average of 25 points, and their previous two opponents — Houston Baptist and Stephen F. Austin — are tied with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for first place in the Southland Conference. SFA, which pounded Lamar 86-52 on Monday, is the two-time defending conference tournament champion.

“Stephen F. Austin is the most talented team in our conference,” Lamar coach Tic Price said. “They’re a veteran team that’s played together three, four years. They’ve worn the crown for a couple of years and have been to the NCAA tournament. They’ve experienced success. They’ve experienced winning.”

Along with the experience, which Price often harkens to with Southland foes, comes the defense, where the Cards (10-10, 2-6) continue to struggle.

“It’s something out of ourselves that we have to do, as players and individuals,” junior guard Lincoln Davis said after last Saturday’s loss to Houston Baptist. “You have to make up in your mind and decide that you want to play defense.”

Price isn’t just looking for defense.

“We’ve got to play stop defense,” he said. “We’ve got to make stops for 40 minutes, and it has to be a collective effort.”

Price said SFA’s work in the weight room made the Lumberjacks stronger than the freshman- and sophomore-laden Cardinals, adding it was “like boys playing against men.”

“When you mix that with confidence, they have very good chemistry,” Price said.
“So they believe, and I’ve said it before, anybody who wants to win the Southland Conference championship is going to have to go through Nacogdoches if you’re going to get it.”

Now, Lamar has the task of breaking a three-game slide at Abilene Christian (8-12, 3-4) on Saturday. It’ll be a 455-mile bus haul for the Cards, as they face a quick turnaround to host fourth-place Sam Houston State (11-10, 6-2) Monday night.

The Cards are sitting a half-game out of eighth place, the cutoff for the Southland tournament, held in March at the Merrell Center in Katy.

The goal for the Cards this weekend will be the same as last weekend — get a win on Saturday for a psychological boost against a Southland power.

“Everything has to line up right,” Price said. “We play at 4 or 4:30 [if the women’s game runs late], get on the bus, you’ve got an 8-hour drive, so you get back here about 4 o’clock in the morning. Then we play Monday. It’s a little easier for Sam. They play Houston Baptist and then they come over here. … They have a little more recovery time than we do. So, mentally, it helps to win in that situation.”

The offense also has to go well for Lamar in Abilene. The team — which still ranks fourth in scoring at 77.3 percent — has not broken 40 percent shooting from the field in three games since nailing 51.6 percent in a home win against Northwestern State. Freshman guard Nick Garth is averaging 14.4 points per game, almost five more than Kevin Booze and Lincoln Davis.

Price is also charging the Cards with taking better care of the basketball. They have 308 turnovers in 20 games, 10 more than they have assists.

“We’ve had to change our approach in practice,” Price said. “If you turn the ball over more than once, there has to be accountability. We’re going down the main stretch of the season, and obviously we can’t allow that to happen if we’re going to make a strong finish.”