HUNTSVILLE ? Preston Brown scored 21 points to lead Sam Houston State to a 72-51 Southland Conference men's basketball victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday afternoon at Johnson Coliseum.

The loss was the first in league play for the Islanders and moved the Kats and TAMUCC into a first place tie in the Southland Conference West Division with identical 5-1 marks.

Sam Houston State put on a 3-point shooting clinic, and more importantly, the defense showed up. The Kats (11-8 overall) hit 12-of-26, or 46 percent, from behind the arc. Sam Houston State also held Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11-10) to 38 percent shooting, the first time in SLC play the Bearkats have held an opponent to under 40.

“I thought we guarded the ball well today,” SHSU head coach Bob Marlin said. “We kept the ball in front of us. Their guards are good off the dribble and they like to go inside, but we didn't allow that today. We took away their drive and everybody contributed. It was a team effort.”

Junior forward Preston Brown led the Bearkats with 21 points, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range. Junior guard Corey Allmond scored 13 points and hit two treys.

Junior point guard Ashton Mitchell went 3-for-4 from 3 to chip in 11 points and also dished out eight assists. Sophomore Lance Pevehouse hit a pair of 3s to finish with 11 points, and senior forward Barkley Falkner had a team-high 10 rebounds.

Sam Houston State fell behind 2-0 in the opening minutes, but then the 3s started falling. Brown hit the first trey at the 17:45 mark, then Falkner hit another 41 seconds later to put the Bearkats up 6-3 and they stayed on top the rest of the way.

Mitchell hit back-to-back 3s, the latter coming with 3:36 to go in the half to put Sam Houston on top 29-22. Senior guard DeLuis Ramirez, who scored eight points, hit consecutive layups to close the half and push the lead to 33-26.

The Bearkats hit 7-of-14 attempts from 3-point land in the opening period.

“I'm not too surprised with our 3-point shots,” Mitchell said. “It seemed like every time we needed a bucket, we were able to hit a shot. Everybody was making them.”

The Islanders had success inside in the first half, getting seven points from 7-foot junior Filip Toncinic, six from junior forward Marcus Hammonds and five from sophomore forward Justin Reynolds to outscore SHSU 18-8 in the paint.

Most of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's damage came because the Islanders controlled the offensive glass. Corpus outrebounded Sam Houston 10-6 on the offensive end and turned it into 10 second-chance points.

But the Bearkats did a better job of blocking out in the second half. The Islanders only had four offensive boards after the break and scored just 10 points in the paint. Toncinic was held scoreless and Reynolds and Hammonds combined to score only seven.

“Really, they were mainly getting points from o-boards and were putting them back up,” Brown said. “They were getting position and getting fouls called on us. We had to block them out better and they started missing shots and we got the rebounds.”

The Bearkats turned the ball over twice to start the second half, then finally scored three minutes into the period when Mitchell drained a 3 to make it 36-26. The Islanders answered with a trey from leading scorer Kevin Palmer, who scored a team-high 15 points.

The teams began to trade baskets and Sam Houston's lead stayed around 10 over the next four minutes. But the Bearkats went on an 13-4 to go up 57-39 following a reverse layup by Pevehouse at the 4:34 mark.

Brown delivered the dagger with a thundering two-handed dunk with 3:13 to play. Pevehouse drove inside then found Brown racing down the baseline to make it 61-44.

“From about the 16-minute mark of the second half to three minutes to go when a timeout was called, we told the guys they had played some pretty good basketball,” Marlin said. “Defensively, offensively, they shared the ball and took care of the ball. We only had a couple of turnovers the rest of the way.

“We made shots and shared the ball. When they changed defenses, we answered and countered and got some easy baskets. It was a good effort by our guys, absolutely.”

SAM HOUSTON STATE 72, TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHR 51

01-31-09 2:05 PM at Huntsville, TX (Johnson Coliseum)

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHR (11-10, SLC 5-1)

Palmer, Kevin 5-14 4-4 15; Hammonds, Marcus 4-6 0-0 9; Reynolds, Justin 3-6

3-7 9; Toncinic, Filip 3-8 0-0 7; Coombs, Shamar 2-8 1-3 6; Nelson, Jawan

1-3 0-0 2; Bond, Horace 1-1 0-0 2; Green, Tim 0-2 1-2 1; Topps, Antonio 0-0

0-0 0; Watt, Demond 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-50 9-16 51.

SAM HOUSTON STATE (11-8, SLC 5-1)

Brown, Preston 8-13 2-2 21; Allmond, Corey 5-14 1-2 13; Pevehouse, Lance 3-5

3-4 11; Mitchell, Ashton 3-7 2-2 11; Ramirez, DeLuis 4-5 0-0 8; Falkner,

Barkley 2-6 0-0 5; Murray, Drae 1-2 0-0 3; Kvedys, Domas 0-1 0-0 0;

Thompson, Kendrell 0-0 0-0 0; Bootle, Antuan 0-1 0-0 0; Crow, Josten 0-1 0-2

0. Totals 26-55 8-12 72.

Texas A&M-Corpus Chr..........   26   25  -   51

Sam Houston State.............   33   39  -   72

3-point goals--Texas A&M-Corpus Chr 4-19 (Coombs, Shamar 1-6; Toncinic,

Filip 1-3; Palmer, Kevin 1-7; Hammonds, Marcus 1-2; Reynolds, Justin 0-1),

Sam Houston State 12-26 (Mitchell, Ashton 3-4; Brown, Preston 3-5; Allmond,

Corey 2-8; Pevehouse, Lance 2-4; Falkner, Barkley 1-1; Murray, Drae 1-2;

Kvedys, Domas 0-1; Crow, Josten 0-1). Fouled out--Texas A&M-Corpus Chr-None,

Sam Houston State-None. Rebounds--Texas A&M-Corpus Chr 32 (Reynolds, Justin

12), Sam Houston State 35 (Falkner, Barkley 10). Assists--Texas A&M-Corpus

Chr 17 (Toncinic, Filip 4), Sam Houston State 24 (Mitchell, Ashton 8). Total

fouls--Texas A&M-Corpus Chr 17, Sam Houston State 16. Technical fouls--Texas

A&M-Corpus Chr-None, Sam Houston State-None. A-1567