The Fighting Camels (14-16, 11-9 in '08-09) were the most improved team in the A-Sun last season, collecting six more conference victories than the previous year.

Ten letter winners return from the 2008-09 Campbell squad, which tied a school record for most A-Sun regular season victories, matching the 11 wins collected by the 1996 club, and recorded the program's first winning record in league play since the 2000 squad finished 10-8.

In spite of fielding the 10th-least experienced team among all 343 Division I programs in '08-09, CU also posted its most regular season wins since 1996 and secured its highest seed in the league tourney (5th) since that '96 squad was seeded number two.

Following last year's win over Chowan, Campbell stands 16-16 in season-opening games since joining NCAA Division I in 1977-78. The Camels are 3-3 in openers under Coach Robbie Laing and have now won 3-straight to start a season.

The Camels also open their second year at 3,095-seat Gore Arena inside the Pope Center. Last season, Campbell won 10 of 14 games at the venue.

The veteran Camel lineup is led by four-year seniors Jonathan Rodriguez and Kyle Vejraska.

Rodriguez enters '09-10 as the third-highest career scorer among all Division I seniors (1631 points) behind only Luke Harangody of Notre Dame (1823) and Mercer's James Florence (1737). He is a three-time A-Sun all-conference performer and was named to the A-Sun pre-season all-league unit for the third-straight year.

In addition, Rodriguez needs only five points Friday night to move past Mark Mocnik (1635 points from 1988-93) into fifth place on Campbell's all-time scoring list. Rodriguez has 1631 points in 91 games for the Camels for a 17.9 career average.

Vejraska enters his senior year ranked seventh on the school career list for blocked shots (78) and is just 293 points shy of becoming the 25th player in CU Division I history (since 1977-78) to reach 1000 career points.

Also returning is two-year starting point guard Junard Hartley, who ranked second among A-Sun leaders in assists (4.3) and assists-turnover ratio (1.83) in '08-09. His 12 assist performance vs. Mercer was tops for a single game in the league last year.

Lorne Merthie was named Atlantic Sun Conference Freshman of the Year in '09 after leading all league freshmen in free throw percentage (.786) and 3-point percentage (.400) and ranking second in scoring (9.5), steals (1.6) and threes made per game.

St. Andrews compiled a 6-21 overall record and 4-16 mark in Conference Carolinas last year. Six-foot-eight junior forward Zack Garst is the team's top returning scorer (9.6) and rebounder (6.2). The Knights lineup also includes senior guard Mike DiBenedetto, who transferred to the school from Atlantic Sun member Jacksonville.

Campbell has won all 12 games against the Knights since moving to the senior college ranks in 1961-62. Most recently, the Camels claimed a 88-57 victory over St. Andrews on Dec. 4, 1995 at Carter Gym.

After Friday night's contest, the Camels will host East Carolina on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m., marking the Pirates' first trip to Buies Creek for a men's basketball game since the 1946-47 season.