Bearkats host Bobcats on SLC TV
3/6/2009 1:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sam Houston plays host to Texas State-San Marcos in a 2 p.m. contest to be regionally televised on the SLC TV Network at Johnson Coliseum Saturday.
The stakes are high in the contest. Leading the Southland West Division with an 11-4 league mark, the Bearkats can earn an SLC regular season co-championship if East Division leader Stephen F. Austin (12-3) losses Saturday night at Texas-San Antonio. Nicholls State (11-4) could also be in the mix if the Colonels win at Lamar.
SFA has nailed down the No. 1 seed in the Southland Conference tournament to be held in Katy March 12-15 by virtue of their 75-73 victory over Sam Houston in both team's first Southland game in Nacogdoches Jan. 10.
The Bobcats are fighting to earn at least a No. 6 seeding in the tournament if they can pull off a road victory in Huntsville.
Saturday will mark the final home regular season appearance for Sam Houston State seniors Domas Kvedys, Barkley Falkner and DeLuis Ramirez.
Kvedys has been a member of the Bearkat squad for the past three years. A 6-10 center, he has provided quality minutes off the bench, appearing in 80 games. He was a top rebounder for Odessa College and played a year in Melbourne, Florida, at Florida Air Academy. Kvedys is an international business major.
Falkner came to Sam Houston as a transfer from Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL. He red-shirted in 2007, then played in 30 games as a reserve post player in 2008. Moving into a starting role this season, he ranks 4th in Southland Conference rebounding, twice pulling down 16 boards in a single game. He also stands 7th in the league in field goal percentage. He has scored in double figures 14 times this year. Falkner is an Academic All-Southland Conference selection with a 3.95 grade point average as an accounting major.
Ramirez has been a starter for the Bearkats the past two seasons. Scoring in double figures 27 times, he has totaled 521 points and 299 rebounds in his 59 appearances. He transferred to Sam Houston from Odessa College where he was a two-year starter and was all-state in high school at Northwestern Christian in Miami, FL. Ramirez is a communications major.
A pair of junior guards provide Sam Houston State with one of its highest scoring back courts ever. Corey Allmond, a 6-1 transfer from Howard College, is averaging 15.4 points and Ashton Mitchell, 5-11 three-year letterman from New Orleans, adds 12.6 a contest.
Allmond is the highest scoring guard at Sam Houston since Jeremy Burkhalter posted 15.9 points per game on the 2000 Southland championship team.
Since Sam Houston moved up to the NCAA Division I level in 1987, there has been only one other season when the Kats had two guards scoring in double figures -- in 2006 when Chris Jordan (14.3) and Jejuan Plair (12.5) led the team from the perimeter.
Mitchell leads the SLC and ranks No. 6 nationally in assists (6.7 per game). Allmond ranks No. 11 in NCAA Division I men's basketball with .436 three-point accuracy.
Allmond has led the team in 14 games including 11 games of 20 or more points. He scored 24 points vs. Schreiner and 23 points at Texas Tech to become only the fourth player in SHSU history to score 20-or-more points in his first two games as a Kat. He has scored 20 or more points in each of Sam Houston's last four games.
Mitchell scored 36 points in the double overtime victory at Lamar, the second highest point total by a Bearkat against an NCAA Division I opponent. He also set a school record in the Lamar contest making 22 of 27 free throws.
