BEAUMONT — Other than coming up short on Dairy Queen’s 100-point, popcorn chicken give-a-way, things went pretty much according to script for Lamar University in its final tune-up before heading to Kentucky.

The Cardinals, paced by career-best outings from Brandon McThay, Coy Custer and Anthony Miles, rolled over outmanned NAIA foe Lyon College, 97-54, at the Montagne Center. In so doing, they improved to 5-0 and extended their home-floor winning streak to 16 games.

Most importantly, from LU coach Steve Roccaforte’s viewpoint, the Cardinals got lots of good minutes from the bench and didn’t have to overextend key starters. Matter of fact, LU’s second leading scorer and leading rebounder, Jay Brown, didn’t even suit up.

Brown was in the hospital being treated for a staph infection stemming from an abscess on his tailbone. Roccaforte, however, said Brown should be available when Lamar squares off against Kentucky Wednesday at 6 p.m.

LU, as Roccaforte had hoped, played with early intensity, used a 12-0 run to open a 16-3 lead in the game’s first five minutes, was up 51-19 at the half and did pretty much what it wanted no matter who was on the court. Ten different players got double-digit minutes and nine of them scored.

McThay lit the fire early, banging home three treys in the game’s first 14 minutes on the way to a 16-point opening half. The 5-10 senior finished with 26 points, including 4-of-8 from behind the arc, to top his previous career best of 17 achieved in each of the last two seasons against Louisiana College.

The 6-10 Custer, starting in place of Brown, added 14 points, three blocked shots and three rebounds. His previous career scoring high was eight against Louisiana College.

Miles, the exciting 6-0 freshman from Houston, contributed a double-double, scoring 15 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

Easy to overlook in all the career bests was 5-9 senior point guard Kenny Dawkins. Though he made only 2-of-8 three-point attempts, Dawkins had a staff stuffer of an evening with 19 points, five assists, five steals and four rebounds.

“We came out and did the things I wanted us to do,” Roccaforte said. “We need to improve in certain areas for us from the Rice game. We shot a low percentage at Rice, we needed to shoot better. We didn’t really rebound the ball like we could and needed to improve on that. We didn’t force a whole lot of turnovers and needed to force more.

The Cardinals shot 52.9 percent (36-of-68), won the boards 41-31 and forced 24 turnovers that led to a whopping 30 points. The Cardinals also had 13 steals, outscored Lyon 40-26 in the paint and boasted a 19-8 advantage in second-chance points.

By getting to 5-0, Lamar became only the fifth Cardinal team to achieve that feat. Jack Martin’s team started 15-0 in 1968-69, Pat Foster’s club opened 9-0 in 198182, Grey Giovanine’s 1997-98 outfit opened 5-0 and Mike Newell’s 1992-93 team also started 5-0.

It looked like the Cardinals would easily reach the 100-point barrier for the second time this season. LU led 96-52 after an Ashton Hall bucket at 3:06, but would not score another field goal.

Lyon, which came into the game 5-2, headed home 5-2. Its record didn’t change because games against Division 1 teams count as exhibitions for NAIA schools. The Scots also headed back to Batesville, Ark., having played Lamar a tad closer than they did a year ago.

LU won in Beaumont last December by the count of 104-52.