Men's basketball hosts UH in clash of 2010 March Madness teams
12/3/2010 9:48:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sam Houston State, which won Southland Conference regular-season and tournament titles last season, threw a scare into eventual Elite Eight participant Baylor in New Orleans before falling 68-59. The Bearkats led 31-30 at half and the game was tied 55-55 with 3:48 after a contest with 15 lead changes. Houston, last year's Conference USA tournament champion, lost its first-round game against Maryland
The Bearkats are off to a 4-1 start this season under first-year head coach Jason Hooten. Sam Houston State defeated Mary Hardin-Baylor 72-47 and Northwestern Oklahoma State 90-68 to open the 2010-11 season with a pair of home games.
No. 21 Texas downed the Kats 84-50 last Tuesday but Sam Houston bounced back for a come-from-behind 92-81 win at Colorado State Saturday and a 54-46 home victory over Saint Thomas of Houston Wednesday night.
The Bearkats are being led by their three senior captains with Gilberto Clavell averaging 19.0 points and 8.2 rebounds, Josten Crow 14.2 points and 6.4 rebounds and Lance Pevehouse 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds.
Clavell, the Southland Conference "Newcomer of the Year" in 2009-10, is a first team preseason All-Southland selection while Crow was named to the preseason second team. Junior post player Antuan Bootle has started the last four contests and is posting a 7.6 scoring average and leading the team with 8.4 rebounds.
Clavell scored 29 points and added nine rebounds in the team's 92-81 victory at Colorado State and was named the conference player of the week. His 19.0 points per game through five games lead the team and rank fourth in the Southland.Clavell has led the Bearkats in scoring three times this season.
Houston is 4-3 and enters Saturday's game trying to snap a two-game losing streak after road losses at TCU and at LSU. Among the Cougars' wins is a 63-62 overtime victory against Nicholls in the season opener.
Senior guard Adam Brown leads the Cougars with 15.4 points per game and has led Houston in scoring in five of the team's seven games, including each of the last three. Senior forward Maurice McNeil is averaging 9.1 rebounds per game and ranks third in Conference USA.
James Dickey is in his first season as coach of the Cougars.
This will be the 31st game between the Bearkats and Cougars. Houston leads the all-time series 20-10 and has won each of the last two meetings, in 2004 and '05. The bulk of the games came in the late 1940s and early 1950s when UH joined Sam Houston as a member of the Lone Star Conference. Since Sam Houston moved up to the NCAA Division I level as a member of the Southland, the Kats are 1-4 against the Cougars. SHSU won 67-63 in Houston in 1998.
The game will be televised live in San Antonio, Beaumont, Corpus Christi and Nacogdoches, and even in parts of Arkansas and Louisiana, but not in Houston.
The Houston game is the second of a series of four home games in eight days. Wednesday, Dec. 8, the opponent is North Texas in a 7 p.m. matchup. Prior to the game with the Mean Green, the Kats' 2010 Southland Conference championship banner will be raised in a special pregame ceremony.
The four-game series ends Saturday, Dec. 11, with a 3:30 p.m. contest with Cleveland State. Dec. 11, it's "Kids Day" at Johnson Coliseum for the 3:30 p.m. tilt with Cleveland State. Students and children 17 years old and younger are free with one paid adult. Up to four kids will be admitted free with each adult.
Tickets for Sam Houston men's basketball are on sale now online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets .
Fans also may purchase tickets 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) 294-1764.
