LU Hosts Jarvis Christian at Noon Friday

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The Lamar University men's basketball team (5-4) looks to get back to its winning ways when it tips off against Jarvis Christian Friday at noon in the Montagne Center. A "businessman special" on the LU campus, the Cardinals are treating their fans to a rare noon start in the Montagne Center.

"Originally, we wanted to try something different," said head coach Tic Price. "We are calling it a businessman special. With Christmas just around the corner and school letting out, this might give parents an opportunity to come out and watch the Cardinals play, in a fun, family-friendly environment. Also, folks who have the opportunity to take a long lunch, or if they are working only a half day tomorrow can come over and have fun watching some basketball."

When the Cardinals take to the court they will be looking to get out to a better start than their previous game at Virginia Tech. LU dropped an 88-53 decision to the Hokies in Blacksburg, and struggled out of the gate. LU fell behind 12-0 to start the game and never got closer than 11 the rest of the way. The Red and White played much better in the second half against Virginia Tech. LU shot the ball better from the field and beyond the arc, while slowing down the Hokies offensively.

 

http://www.lamarcardinals.com/news/2015/12/17/MBB_1217155740.aspx

Lamar up by three at the half. 30-27 JC is 1 and 9 for the year. If the south side of the Montagne isn't any fuller than the north this start time experiment is a total failure. According to the announcers Price didn't appear to happy with the effort in the first half.

Lamar has out scored JC 13 -6 through the first four minutes of the second half. Playing for LU is Mattingly, Gregory, Garth, Sears and Owens, this seems like a good mix and line up.

At the twelve minute mark LU is holding on the ten point lead it built in the first four minutes of the half.

LU has a 15 point lead now but only a 3 point lead at the half against a school like Jarvis Christian is embarrassing. And why are playing this game on a Friday at noon? Did they not want any fans to show up?

At the under 8 minute timeout Lamar has pushed the lead out to 17 points. Lamar is using better shot selection than they did at Virginia Tech. Yes I know the competition is a lot less but moving the ball inside and out to get good shots is much better.

2:38 left in the game Lamar still with a 17 point lead. The last five minutes has been a little sloppy for Lamar.

Final score Lamar 80 JC 56. Mattingly had a double double for the game (11 points 16 rebounds). Lamar had four players in double figures scoring. with Sears leading the way with 24, Garth with 13 and Owens with 10.

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Price said in his post game comments that the Friday noon start was set up for the Lamar faculty, hoping to get a lot of them there. That's an admirable thought but I think if you want to set up this kind of game you ought to do something like get the management at several of the area facilities to join in. Contact ExxonMobil, Total, DuPont, Valero etc. and see if they would encourage their day organizations to attend. Contact area school districts and invite them. For go the ticket costs for the game for those businesses and organizations that would bring their staffs. Lamar would probably make more money off of the concession stands than they did on ticket sales today.

Price said in his post game comments that the Friday noon start was set up for the Lamar faculty, hoping to get a lot of them there. That's an admirable thought but I think if you want to set up this kind of game you ought to do something like get the management at several of the area facilities to join in. Contact ExxonMobil, Total, DuPont, Valero etc. and see if they would encourage their day organizations to attend. Contact area school districts and invite them. For go the ticket costs for the game for those businesses and organizations that would bring their staffs. Lamar would probably make more money off of the concession stands than they did on ticket sales today.

 

Sounds like a great idea to me. Before I retired, departments in the companies I worked for had team building days. Several of those days were to the "businessmen's special" Astros games. It was a great experience; even when the Astros sucked (which was most of the time).

 

I haven't been much of a pro baseball fan since the 1994-95 strike, but those team building games triggered taking the family to the ballpark. We didn't make regular trips after the strike year, but we did make some...and more than we otherwise would have.

 

Corporate events at Lamar might incentivize someone to get on board with the games. With the Lamar games, there would be no worry about getting burned by no refunds for missed games due to a strike. :angry: (We attended around 10 Astros games a season before that.)