Whole new season for Bearkat men's basketball
1/10/2010 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Entering Saturday's Southland Conference opener, the Bearkats and the Lumberjacks were headed in different directions.
Sam Houston State came into the annual rivalry game against Stephen F. Austin off back-to-back losses, an 88-48 defeat against Wright State on Dec. 28, the Kats' worst loss since 2003 when they lost to Texas by 51 points, and a one-point loss to Western Michigan in the final seconds.
"We came off two hard losses, but that's why coach (Bob Marlin) scheduled those games," said Sam Houston State senior point guard Ashton Mitchell, who scored 11 points, dished nine assists and swiped four steals in the Kats' 66-57 victory Saturday. "Those are tough opponents and they prepared us for conference games."
"It's a whole new season for us," senior forward Preston Brown said. "We put those two losses behind us and came out with a new mentality just to work hard. We talked about it and really focused. We knew we could outrebound them. We tried to do that and did a good job with that.
"We changed our mind-set. We quit thinking about those losses after the game."
Before coming to Huntsville, the Lumberjacks won four straight and nine of their past 10, with a nail-biting 72-69 loss to Arkansas last month.
Besides wanting to snap their skid, the Kats also looked to start off strong in league play. There's certainly nothing like a rivalry game to forget about a losing streak.
Considering that the Southland Conference opener was against archrival SfA, the defending conference champs, and that it would be their only shot at the Lumberjacks until the SLC tournament, the Bearkats wanted to make the most of this showdown.
Last season, the Lumberjacks and the Kats met only once and it proved to be a critical game.
Stephen F. Austin beat Sam Houston 75-73 in the conference opener in Nacogdoches and eventually finished the season with a 13-3 league record, while the Kats finished 12-4 in league play.
Instead of finishing in a three-way tie for first with SFA and Nicholls, possibly earning the top seed in the SLC tournament, the Kats drew the No. 3 seed and lost in the first round to Texas-San Antonio.
In the latest installation of the basketball Battle of the Piney Woods, the Kats led for most of the game, but had to fight down the stretch.
Though the Jacks didn't make a shot from the field in the final seven minutes, they more than made up for it at the free-throw line, sinking 10-of-13 attempts from the charity stripe.
But the Bearkats kept hitting shots to create separation. The Kats iced the game when junior Josten Crow laid the ball in on a fast break to give SHSU a 65-57 lead with six seconds to go.
"This was a big game," Mitchell said. "They're the defending champs and our rivals. We wanted to come out and start conference out right. It's a tough conference and we know we're going to need big games like this."
Even though the Kats got off to a good start with a solid win over the preseason favorite to win the East Division, they know that it's a long season.
"It feels real good to start off this way," added Brown. "We just have to build off of this and keep getting better. We can't let a few wins go to our heads. We've got to keep moving on and keep getting W's."
Sam Houston goes on the road to Southeastern Louisiana Saturday then returns home to Johnson Coliseum Wednesday, Dec. 20, to host Texas State.
Tickets are on sale now on-line at www.gobearkats.com or at the Sam Houston athletic ticket office located in 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 is (936) 294-1729.
