League's top scorers duel Saturday at 2 p.m.
1/14/2011 3:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Bose is averaging 23.5 points per game this season, totaling 20 or more points in 10 contests this year. Clavell owns a 19.3 scoring mean.
The contest is a rematch of the Bearkats' first round battle with the Colonels at the Southland Conference tournament in Katy. League champion Sam Houston barely escaped an upset with a 62-57 win against Nicholls.
Bose totaled 40 points as the No. 8 seeded Colonels gave the Bearkats fits all night long, briefly taking a lead with 11 minutes left to play in the game.
But the Kats answered right back, getting the lead back up to seven. Nicholls never got closer than three the rest of the way. The game was never out of reach in the second half until Ashton Mitchell sealed the game with a pair of free-throws with five seconds left to play to make it a two-possession game.
Saturday Nicholls enters the tilt with a 7-6 season mark. The Colonels are tied for third place in the Southland East Division with a 1-1 league mark.
Sam Houston is 8-7 for the year. The Bearkats are in a 4-way deadlock for second spot in the West, also with a 1-1 Southland record.
Sam Houston leads its all-time men's basketball series with Nicholls with 24 victories to 20. The Colonels battled the Bearkats to the wire in two thrillers last year. SHSU won 75-69 in Thibodaux and 62-57 in the first round of the Southland tournament.
Along with Clavell's19.3 points per game, the senior forward stands fifth in the league in rebounding (7.4). He has scored in double figures in 14 of the Kats' 15 contests this year.
With 853 career points in 48 games since transferring to Sam Houston from Collin Country Community College, Clavell is 147 points away from becoming the first junior college transfer to score 1,000 career points for the Bearkats in two years of action at the NCAA Division I level.
Clavell is averaging 17.8 points per game as a starter for the Kats. He has earned Southland "Player of the Week" honors twice this year and five times as a Bearkat.
Donald Cole, the Southland "Player of the Year" in 2003, totaled 984 points in his two years as a Bearkat. Corey Allmond, the three-point shooting wonder from last year's championship team, totaled 979 career points.
Sam Houston will be attempting to bounce back from a 65-58 loss to UTA last Wednesday at Johnson Coliseum. Bo Ingram scored 28 points to lead the Mavericks.
UTA took the lead on a three-point shot by Ingram with 4:13 remaining in the first half and never trailed again. The Maverick defense limited Sam Houston to 18-of-52 shooting from the floor (34.6 percent) as the Kats hit only 4-of-22 shots from three point range.
Sam Houston was led by Gilberto Clavell with 16 points and 12 rebounds. SHSU's Antuan Bootle led both teams with a career best 15 boards.
Saturday's game will be televised regionally by the Southland TV Network. KHOU Digital 11.2 will telecast the game in the Greater Houston area.
KSAM 101.7 FM will carry play-by-play of Wednesday's game live on the radio in Huntsville and on the internet. Bearkat Vision will stream video live on www.gobearkats.com.
Tickets for all Bearkat home games are onsale online now at www.gobearkats.com/tickets 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) 294-1764.
