Women's basketball face high scoring ORU Monday
11/27/2009 8:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
The Bearkat women play host to Oral Roberts at 5 p.m. while the men match up with Mid America Christian at 7:30 p.m. Both teams will present special challenges to their Sam Houston State foes.
The Golden Eagles come to Huntsville with one of the hottest scorers in NCAA Division I women's basketball.
Kevi Luper, a 5-10 freshman, is averaging 30.3 points a game, hitting 47-of-76 from the floor (62 percent) in her first four games. The Strang, OK, product scored 44 points in a 76-55 ORU victory in the Golden Eagles' last outing. The freshman poured in 29 points in a 76-55 loss at Kansas and 25 in ORU's 98-65 victory over Texas-Pan American.
ORU defeated Houston Baptist 107-67 Saturday to run its record to 3-1. Janice Voelker adds 16.3 points per game to the ORU attack.
The Sam Houston women stand 2-2 for the year after consecutive road victories at Centenary and Grambling before the Thanksgiving break.
Senior forward Whitney Smith leads the Bearkat women with 13.5 points per game. Smith also is averaging 7.3 rebounds per contest.
Sophomore forward Khamra Echols was the leading scorer in both victories in Louisiana last week. Echols scored 14 points at Centenary and 20 at Grambling. She is averaging 10.8 points per game.
The ORU contest will be the Bearkat women's last home game for more than a month. The women do not return to Johnson Coliseum until Tuesday, Jan 12, when the Kats play host to Texas Southern.
The Sam Houston men's team is returning home after an extremely successful two-week road swing that took the Bearkats from Lexington, KY to Cleveland and finally Cancun, Mexico.
The Bearkats stand 4-2 after victories over Oral Roberts and Rider in Cancun and a narrow 10-point loss to No. 4 ranked Kentucky.
Senior Corey Allmond ranks fourth in the Southland Conference with 17.8 points per game and leads the league with an average of 3.8 three point baskets per contest. Allmond set an Adolph Rupp Arena, Southland Conference and Sam Houston record with 11 treys at Kentucky. He was named Southland Conference men's basketball "Player of the Week" last Monday.
Senior point guard Ashton Mitchell and junior post player Gilberto Clavell also are scoring in double digits. Mitchell leads the Southland with 5.8 assists per game and has posted a 12.5 scoring mean. Clavell averages 12.0 points and 4.3 rebounds.
Preston Brown is adding 9.2 points and Lance Pevehouse is averaging 6.3 points, both coming off the Bearkat bench.
Mid-America Christian of Oklahoma City is a member of the NAIA Sooner Athletic Conference. The Evangels are 4-2 for the season. Their top scorers are 6-0 guard Charlie Shorter with 16.0 points per game and 6-8 forward Josh Bell with 11.5 points.
Attending the doubleheader Monday night can help Sam Houston students earn a free T-Shirt.
The first 500 SHSU students to attend any combination of three home men's or women's basketball games will win a Bearkat basketball t-shirt courtesy of Student Activities and Bearkat Athletics.
Attendees will be tracked via the BearkatOneCard. For the purposes of the promotion, the men's and women's basketball doubleheader on Monday, November 30, will count as one event only. Sam Students receive free admission to BEarkat home games on presentation of their BearkatOneCard.
Huntsville area fans can purchase tickets on-line now at www.gobearkats.com or by contacting the Sam Houston State athletic ticket office at the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
