After a slight break in the schedule around the Christmas break the Louisiana College men's basketball team returns to the hardwood this week with a pair of American Southwest Conference games against Howard Payne and Sul Ross State. Originally schedule as the team's conference home openers, the games will be played in Louisiana, just not in the friendly confines of H.O. West.  Due to continued work being done to the floor on LC's campus the pair of games will be played 60 miles north of Pineville at Northwestern State's Prather Colesium.

Howard Payne comes into the matchup with the Wildcats with a 6-5 overall record and a 4-1 conference mark, which puts them in a first place tie atop the ASC Western Division with the Wildcats second opponent this week Sul Ross State. The Yellow Jackets have won three out of their last four games, with the only loss coming to Division I opponent Texas State before Christmas. HPU is led by standout  juniors Rickey Guillory and Khyce Randall, who are both averaging more than 14 points per game this season, Guillory on top with a 15.4 average.  J Bailey and Donovan Jenkins lead the charge on the glass for the Jackets with 6.4 and 5.9 rebounds per game this year. Even with six wins this season Howard Payne ranks last in the ASC in points per game at 68.7 per outing while allowing 74.6 to their opponents, third lowest in the conference. 

Like the Yellow Jackets, Sul Ross enters the matchup with LC winners of three of their last four games, but losing their last outing to Elmhurst 71-64 last week. The Lobos have a 4-1 conference record placing tied atop the Western Division with Howard Payne and a 7-6 record overall so far.  Three players are averaging more than 10 points per game this season including Caleb Thomasson who ranks sixth in the ASC in points per game with 17.5. Thomasson also ranks fourth in the conference in rebounds per game at 8.4 boards per game. The Lobos have the second lowest point per game total in the ASC at 75.2 per game and are shooting 41.9% from the field which is also second lowest in the conference.

The Wildcats are still in search of their first conference win after an unsuccessful trip to Mary Hardin-Baylor and Concordia before Christmas, including and overtime loss to the Tornadoes. LC played an exhibition game last week in their home away from home, for this week at least,  against Northwestern State, but that is all the action the Wildcats have seen since the overtime game against Concordia. Raheem Regis continues to play well for LC and after missing a couple of games due to injury, Steve Evans had a breakout performance scoring 23 points against Concordia and seems to be back at 100% coming into the meat of the conference season. The Wildcat men will tip off against Howard Payne at Northwestern State's Prather Colesium Tuesday at 7:30 pm and against Sul Ross on Thursday night at 7:30 pm, also in Natchitoches.