HICKORY, N.C. – The Catawba College men's basketball team goes on its final road trip of the regular season Wednesday, squaring off against 15th-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne at 7:30 p.m. inside Shuford Arena.
Beat the Buzzer
- Catawba rallied back from trailing by eight with four minutes to go against Mars Hill on Saturday, punctuating the comeback with a buzzer-beating jumper by Justin Banks to claim an 87-85 triumph
- Banks is no stranger to playing the hero with a put-back as the Schaumburg, Ill. native had the highlight-reel, second-chance slam to beat Lander in the season opener
- Nick Walker tallied 21 points to lead the scoring column as Banks followed with 20 points and 10 boards in a double-double performance
- Ibra Athie gave the blue and white two double-doubles on the day at 10 points and 15 rebounds, helping lift Catawba to 29 offensive rebounds – the program's highest total in a game since at least before 2010-11
- The Catawba Indians' second dispatching of Mars Hill marked their third South Atlantic Conference series sweep of the season after also going 2-0 against Carson-Newman and Tusculum
Robinson Holds the Record
- After sinking two triples on Saturday, Kris Robinson became Catawba's all-time leader in career three-pointers at 267 swishes and counting
- The Lincolnton, N.C. product has his sights on setting a new single-season mark as well, sitting 10 threes away from breaking the record held by current assistant coach Marcell Haskett (82 in 2018-19)
- At the charity stripe, Robinson is positioned to be the most efficient free throw shooter in Catawba history with a career clip of 85.5%; the current record is 84.7% by Devin Cooper
Under Consideration
- Catawba was highlighted as one of five SAC programs appearing in the first NCAA Regional Rankings release last week
- The standings are used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to fill out the bracket, taking eight teams from each region; three automatic berths are secured via conference championships, leaving five at-large bids up for grabs
- In addition to Catawba, the SAC was represented by Carson-Newman, Coker, Lenoir-Rhyne and Lincoln Memorial
- USC Aiken, who hosted the Catawba Indians on Nov. 10, was also marked under consideration for the national playoffs
Flashback to Overtime
- The last time Catawba and Lenoir-Rhyne faced off, the conference rivals engaged in a high-scoring affair at Goodman Arena that resulted in a 112-108 overtime victory for the Bears
- With less than a second left in regulation, Walker drilled a free throw to tie the game at 96-96 to send the game to another five minutes
- Catawba held a four-point edge with 2:20 to go, but Lenoir-Rhyne leveraged a 10-1 run to slip past the hosts
- The blue and white recorded their greatest point total in a loss since 2008, while the Bears registered their highest-scoring game in the 220-meeting series
All-Time Series
- Lenoir-Rhyne holds the all-time edge over Catawba at 116-104 with wins in the last two meetings
- Over two-thirds of the matchups in Hickory since the 1960-61 season have gone the Bears' way as LR is 45-21 on home court
- On a more positive note for Catawba, the program is 2-1 against ranked LR teams including a 64-62 victory over the No. 18 Bears on Feb. 7, 2004
Scouting the Bears
- LR enters the last week of the regular season at 21-5 overall and 18-4 in conference play
- The Bears boasted a 10-game winning streak in the earlier half of the campaign including a high-profile win over Lincoln Memorial to begin the calendar year
- The squad's lone result last week was an 89-75 triumph at Limestone on Saturday
- Leading scorer Ziare Wells, who supplied a three-pointer for the overtime dagger in the previous matchup with Catawba, is averaging 17.7 points per game
- 7-foot-3 sophomore Conrad Luczynski has notched five double-doubles, recording 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds on a per-game basis
Follow Along
The contest will be streamed on FloCollege ($) with live stats on lrbears.com.
