Games of the Decade, No. 5
12/24/2009 9:00:00 AM | Athletics
The No. 5 game of the decade was also one of the largest attended games at Johnson Coliseum. Early in the 2007-2008 basketball season, the Bearkats welcomed Texas Tech and Hall of Fame coach Bobby Knight to Huntsville.
The crowd of 4,842 were treated to a great basketball game, as the Kats knocked off Texas Tech 56-54.
The following story is what was printed in the Huntsville Item the next morning:
Not In Our House
originally published Nov. 15, 2007
By Cody Stark
The Huntsville Item
Bob Knight and Texas Tech's first trip to Huntsville very well could be their last.
Shamir McDaniel exploded for a game-high 18 points, the Bearkats played lock-down defense and got some key buckets down the stretch to hold on for a 56-54 victory over the Red Raiders at Johnson Coliseum on Wednesday night.
Sam Houston State (2-0) held Texas Tech (1-1) to 39 percent shooting from the field and outrebounded the Red Raiders 44-32 to improve its nonconference home winning streak to 31 games, the third longest in the nation.
"This was a good opportunity in front of us tonight, and it was presented to us from Coach (Knight) and his willingness to come play us." Bearkats head coach Bob Marlin said. "... They are good people, are very well coached, and our basketball team got better tonight by playing a really good team."
McDaniel helped spark a slow offensive night for the Bearkats (36.5 percent shooting) by scoring 15 second-half points. The senior guard was 5-of-8 from 3-point range and came up with what was potentially the game-winning play.
With SHSU clinging to a two-point lead with less than a minute to go, McDaniel drove to the basket, drew contact, spun and banked a shot off the glass to set up a three-point play. He hit the free throw to put the Kats up for good at 56-51.
"We were excited and came out here expecting to win, but the way the game came down in the end, everybody was pumped up," said McDaniel, who matched his career high in points scored. "It was a team effort. Everybody came out and played their hardest and we came out with a win."
Sam Houston State took a 25-23 lead into the break and pushed it to 32-26, the largest of the game, when McDaniel hit consecutive 3s with 18:01 left in the game.
Six minutes later, Martin Zeno, the Red Raiders' top returning scorer, started to heat up. He scored seven of his team-high 16 points unanswered to give Tech its first lead since the 3:30 mark of the first half at 41-39.
But the Bearkats tightened up defensively and jumped back on top at 44-41 when McDaniel hit a trey from the top of the key and James Barrett got an easy two with just over seven minutes left in the game.
SHSU never trailed again.
"From the first day of practice (defense) is what we work on. For the first two weeks, that is all we do," said SHSU senior Ryan Bright, who added seven points and 12 rebounds, 10 coming on the defensive end. "That's not a fun two weeks. But it is apparent that our defense is way ahead of our offense. We are waiting for our offense to catch up."
The Red Raiders cut the lead to 48-47 with 2:38 to go when Charlie Burgess hit a free throw. And just like they did the entire night when Tech would put on the pressure, the Bearkats made the plays.
Bright hit a free throw to make it a two-point game, and on the ensuing possession, junior Ryan Bennett came up with a steal then floated a long pass down the court. DeLuis Ramirez was on the receiving end and easily laid a shot in to make it 51-47.
After the Red Raiders got a pair of free throws from guard Alan Voskuil to trim the lead to two, Bennett found Ramirez again, this time a great pass through traffic in the lane for two more with 58 seconds remaining.
Texas Tech made it close when Voskuil was fouled on a 3 with under a second to go, but by then the home crowd of 4,842 was already celebrating one of the biggest wins in Johnson Coliseum history.
This was the second time a Marlin-coached Bearkat squad got the best of Knight and Tech. SHSU handed Knight his first loss as the Red Raiders' coach in 2002 in Lubbock.
"The reason that we scheduled this game was because we knew it would be a really tough game," Knight said. "It's not the easiest thing in the world to lose a nonconference game because that is a tough thing when you get down to the end of the season. We took an opportunity to play someone we knew was going to be good, somebody that we knew would play hard and hopefully that will help us down the road a little bit."
Ramirez was the Kats' second-leading scorer with 10 points, while Barrett finished with six and seven rebounds. John Gardiner had four points and eight boards, including the final on an intentionally missed free throw with that ran out the clock. Bennett also dished out six assists in the victory.
