HUNTSVILLE, TX - Senior guard Brittany Brooks scored 20 points to lead Sam Houston to a 65-63 women's basketball victory over Nicholls Wednesday night, becoming the 11th SHSU woman score more than 1,000 points in her career in the process.
Brooks didn't take long to achieve a Bearkat milestone, hitting a 3-pointer 1:37 into the game for her career point 1,002. Her most important basket, however, was her last 3-pointer of the game at 1:21 that ended a 7-0 run by the Colonels that cut SHSU's lead from 12 to 5.
Alisha Allen led Nicholls (4-18 1-9 Southland)with 19 points and Ricshanda Bickham added 18. Sam Houston (6-15 3-6 Southland) had two other players in double figures with Clarke Davis and Chanice Smith each scoring 10
The Bearkats led by as many as 14 points early in the second half and were up by 12 with 5:20 left to play when a Brooks 3-point basket gave SHSU a 59-47 lead.
That was the last field goal for Sam Houston for the next four minutes as Nicholls went on a 7-0 run to cut the margin to 59-54 with 1:46 to play. Brooks hit another three and Chanice Smith made three free throws in the final 30 seconds to hold off the Colonels.
"When we're not scoring late in a game, we tend to get a little nervous and we let them come back," Sam Houston head coach Brenda Nichols said. "But Chanice hit some big free throws down the stretch and Brittany had a great night. These kids have fought so hard all season, it was great to see them have some success."
Sam Houston ended a four-game losing streak with the victory.
Sam Houston and Nicholls exchanged leads six times early in the game before the Bearkats went on a 14-3 run to go up 27-17 on a 3-pointer by Chanice Smith with 5:54 left in the half.
The Colonels fought back with a run of their own, out-scoring the Kats 6-0 in the final three minutes of the period to cut the margin to four 31-27 at intermission
Sam Houston travels to play at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Tickets for all Bearkat basketball home games are on sale now on-line at www.gobearkats.com . 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. Ticket office telephone is (936) 294-1729.
