HUNTSVILLE -- Shamir McDaniel hit five of eight three point shots and scored 19 points and Ryan Bright pulled down 10 rebounds to lead Sam Houston State to a 71-53 Southland Conference men's basketball victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Johnson Coliseum Saturday.
The victory marked the 300th career coaching win for Sam Houston State head coach Bob Marlin
The game was tied eight times and there with 13 lead changes before the Bearkats went ahead to stay 36-35 on a free throw by John Gardiner with 16:37 to play. Sam Houston outstcored the Islanders 35 to 18 in the final 15 minutes of the half.
Justin Reynolds led TAMUCC with 17 points. Chris Daniels pulled down 9 rebounds.
McDaniel caught fire from 3-point range, knocking down three treys in the final five minutes to help Sam Houston State cruise to a 71-53 victory over the visitors from Corpus Christi at Johnson Coliseum.
McDaniel drilled back-to-back 3s with 4:22 left to go, the latter coming after a steal by junior forward Reggie Rawlins, to put the Bearkats up 59-45. The fatal blow came two minutes later when McDaniel was left open and connected again from long range, this time getting a lucky bounce off the rim to push the lead to 16.
“A couple of my guys made some good plays on the ball, were able to penetrate and kick it out, and I was wide open. All I had to do was make it,” said McDaniel, who scored a game-high 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point land. “My teammates made some good plays trying to get me the ball.”
Senior forward Ryan Bright turned in his 12th double-double of the season in the victory, scoring 15 points and ripping down 10 rebounds. Junior DeLuis Ramirez added 12 points and 10 boards, while senior center John Gardiner chipped in 10 points and two blocks.
Sophomore point guard Ashton Mitchell and Rawlins each finished with six points for Sam Houston, which improved to 18-4 overall and 6-3 in Southland Conference action.
The Islanders fell to 6-15 on the season and 3-5 in league play.
Despite being undersized, Sam Houston outrebounded the bigger, more athletic Corpus squad 36-20 and 13-10 on the offensive glass, which resulted in a 13-5 advantage in second-chance points.
After giving up 45 percent shooting in the first half, the Kats did a better job after the break, holding the Islanders to just 9-of-23, or 39 percent. That helped spark the SHSU offense in the final period.
Trailing 35-33 with just under 18 minutes to go, the Bearkats went on a 12-0 run thanks to a 3-pointer by Bright and baskets by McDaniel and Ramirez to go up for good at 45-35. During the stretch, the Islanders turned the ball over a few times, including a shot clock violation.
“The second half, I thought we came out and played really good defense for a stretch, hit some timely 3-point shots and we told the guys at halftime we were going to bust out and hit some shots,” SHSU head coach Bob Marlin said, who picked up his 300th career victory. “We were close, and we hit several 3s there. We won the 3-point game (8-of-17) by 15 points tonight, that was the first time we had won the 3-point game in a long time.”
The Bearkats led at the break 31-30, despite shooting only 39 percent in the first half. But the tide quickly turned in the final 20 minutes, as Sam Houston hit 13-of-23, or 57 percent, of its field goals the rest of the way.
Freshman forward Justin Reynolds scored a team-high 17 points for the Islanders, but that was about it.
Sam Houston did a solid job of defending reigning SLC player of the year Chris Daniels. The 7-foot senior center had seven points and eight boards in the first half, but Gardiner and junior Barkley Falkner held him to only two points and one rebound in the second.
“They are big down low and you know (Gardiner) does a superb job on defense, blocking shots and getting hands on balls,” Bright said. “Barkley and Domas (Kvedys) came in there and they all played very well. It's an effort by our guards, too, because they dug down and made their posts pass out a lot and not giving them a chance to shoot.”
The Kats play at home Wednesday versus Northwestern State before going on a three-game road swing..
