SAN ANTONIO – The University of the Incarnate Word wraps up its men's basketball home schedule on Saturday when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. in the McDermott Center. The Cardinals will celebrate Senior Day, paying tribute to Charles Brown III and Jorden Kite, two student-athletes who have played a major role in first-year head coach Dr. Carson Cunningham's rebuilding program.
 
Brown and Kite have provided invaluable veteran leadership to a team that features eight freshmen and four sophomores. Both upperclassmen will lead their teammates on a season-concluding road trip next week, playing at HBU and Abilene Christian.
 
Saturday night UIW will be seeking a second Southland Conference victory. The Cardinals are 6-22 overall and 1-14 in conference action. TAMU-CC is 11-17 and 6-9. The Islanders prevailed, 70-61, when the two squads met on Feb. 9 in Corpus Christi.
 
A pair of underclassmen, freshman Antoine Smith Jr. and sophomore Augustine Ene, have provided most of the firepower for the Cardinals in recent games. On Wednesday night in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Smith scored a career-high 21 points as Northwestern State overcame an 11-point UIW lead to take a 68-60 victory.
 
Last Saturday night in Nacogdoches, Texas, Ene scored 17 as the Cardinals lost to Stephen F. Austin, 81-54. Smith had 12 points in that game.
 
Christian Peevy, another sophomore, leads UIW in scoring with 12.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. He is the nation's 38^th-best free throw shooter, leading a team that ranks first among Division I schools in accuracy from charity stripe.
 
CHARLES BROWN III
Brown, a native of New Orleans, came to UIW by way of Murray State of the Ohio Valley Conference and Itawamba Community College of Mississippi. In two years with the Cardinals, he has averaged 12.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
 
Brown has also made his presence felt by dint of his shooting accuracy. During his UIW career, he has made more than half of his shots from the floor, hitting 50.1 percent, and more than four of five free throws, averaging 83.1 percent. In addition, he has bucketed 40.2 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point arc.
 
Brown scored a career high of 27 points against DePaul in December and made 14 of 15 free throws against Central Arkansas in January.
 
Stellar in the classroom as a television production major, he will earn his second consecutive spot on the SLC Commissioner's Honor Roll this spring.
 
JORDEN KITE
Kite is a local product, having prepped at San Antonio's Tom C. Clark High School. As a redshirt junior this season, he has elected to graduate in the spring.
 
Kite, a veteran of more than 1,000 minutes on the court for the Cardinals, has played in 76 games and started 17 during his career. Deadly from the free throw line, he has hit 89.1 percent of his foul shots, missing only six of 51 attempts. A skilled ball handler and defender, he has dished out 33 assists and stolen the ball 26 times.
 
Jorden, an accounting major, will earn his third Conference Commissioner's trophy for academic excellence this spring.

CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS TO BE HONORED AT HALFTIME
Two of the most successful teams in UIW history will be honored at halftime. For two consecutive seasons at the end of the last decade, the Cardinals won the Heartland Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Tournament. The 2008-09 team went 23-6 and the 2009-10 team compiled a 23-7 record.

 

For the most up-to-date information on UIW Athletics, visit uiwcardinals.com, follow the Cardinals on Twitter @UIWAthletics and like UIW Athletics on Facebook at UIW Athletics.