By Cody Stark, Huntsville Item
The Bearkats turned the start of the second half into a track meet and Nicholls got left with a mouth full of dust.
Sam Houston State blew the doors off Johnson Coliseum with a 22-3 run after the break, then put on the cruise control to rout the Colonels 74-56 Saturday afternoon. The Bearkats knocked down open shots and played smothering defense to improve to 2-1 in Southland Conference play and 9-7 overall.
It was the kind of performance Sam Houston needed after a disappointing showing in a 65-58 home loss to Texas-Arlington on Wednesday. The Bearkats were in control, executed the offense and never allowed Nicholls (1-2, 9-9) to get into the game with big runs to start the first and second halves.
"I feel a lot better now than I did Wednesday night, that is for sure," SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. "The game went as planned today. It always doesn't go as you planned it, but you couldn't have drawn it up any better than today. We came out and executed defensively to the game plan we wanted to do and then we made some shots.
"We made shots early and shooting is contagious. Some guys started making them and the next thing you know, we had a bunch of guys making them."
The Bearkats were in complete control from the opening tip. Junior Antuan Bootle, who ripped down 12 boards, scored on a tip-in 19 seconds into the contest. Juniors Drae Murray and Marcus Williams each knocked down 3-pointers to make it 10-0.
The Colonels were able to stay in the game because Anatoly Bose, the SLC's leading scorer, was able to get to the free throw line, where he went 9 of 12 in the first half. He made two shots at the stripe and Justin Ayers hit a trey to pull Nicholls to within 24-18 with 4:11 to go.
That was as close as it got. Senior Lance Pevehouse, who missed Wednesday's game with an eye injury, scored five of his team-high 13 points unanswered, including a 3 to push the lead back to 11. Bootle got another tip-in and after the Colonels cut it back to 32-25, Murray, who scored 11 points, was able to nail a deep ball to send the Kats into the break with a 10-point lead.
"Both in the first and second half, we went out on a 10-0 run. I know the second half had to be around that," Pevehouse said. "When you do that, it gives them a big hole that is hard to get out of."
Pevehouse was a little generous. Sam Houston opened the second half with a 15-0 run. Senior Josten Crow got the surge started with a three-point play. Williams, who scored seven and dished out four assists, scored on a layup and Murray drained another 3 to make it 43-25.
That was the beginning of the end for Nicholls, especially considering how well the Kats shot the ball and defended. Sam Houston shot 54 percent (27 of 50) from the field and 50 percent (7 of 14) from long range, a huge improvement compared to the loss to UTA. Wednesday, the Bearkats hit just 35 percent of their shots and 18 percent from 3-point land.
Sam Houston also held the Colonels to just 29 percent (18 of 62) shooting for the game. After trailing by as many as 36 in the second half, Nicholls did go on a 15-0 run that was capped by a trey from Fred Hunter and a layup by Dantrell Thomas to cut SHSU's lead to 68-47 with 5:22 left to play.
But the Kats had pulled all of their starters and were letting some bench players get some work in.
"We want to try and get off to good starts and put ourselves in good positions to win ballgames, and we did that today," Hooten said. "We came out and made a few shots, which makes things better, but defensively we really came down and contested well and made them take some really bad shots to start the game.
"In the second half, I was really proud because at halftime I went in and told them I want to come out and get after them right away. We did that."
Heading into the game, a lot of the focus was surrounding Bose and Sam Houston senior Gilberto Clavell, who is second in the SLC in scoring.
Last year in the opening round of the SLC tournament in Katy, Bose almost led Nicholls to an upset of the top-seeded Bearkats by scoring 40 points in a 62-57 loss.
Saturday, Crow, who scored 10 points, and Pevehouse made sure Bose did not have a repeat performance. Bose did finish with a game-high 15 points, but was just 2 for 16 from the field and 0 for 7 from 3. He also only scored four points in the second half.
With Bose out of the picture, the Colonels were out of whack on offense. No one else stepped up and made plays.
"(Bose) is a great player and you have to tip your hat to him," Crow said, "but we have a lot of pride and a lot of want to and a lot of togetherness. We wanted to make that a key to come out and hold him down because usually when he has a bad game, their team sweats a little bit because he is such a big part of what they want to do. We were able to do it and it wasn't just me and Lance. We had a lot of help."
Clavell was in foul trouble and had to sit on the bench much of the first half. He only finished with 12 points, seven below his average, but it made an impact.
Clavell scored six straight points, including a monster two-handed dunk off a great pass from freshman Byron Randle, during the 15-0 run to start the second half.
The Bearkats also got big contributions from junior Marcus James, who scored nine points and grabbed nine boards in 17 minutes off the bench. Sophomore Aaron Thompson was a big defensive presence in the paint and junior Nafis Richardson added five points.
The Sam Houston men play their next two games on the road, traveling to Texas State on Wednesday and to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday.
The Bearkats return to Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum for a showdown with 2011 Southland Conference favorite Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday, January 26. The 7 p.m. contest marks a rematch of last year's Southland tournament final in which SHSU knocked off SFA to earn an NCAA "March Madness" berth in New Orleans.
The Kat-Jack "Piney Woods" matchup January 26 is The Villas On Sycamore "Spirit Night" with great prizes up for grabs by students who compete in a contest to show their Bearkat spirit.
Prizes include a Sony Bloggie video recorder, a Coolpix S4000 touch screen digital camera and an IPAD. The first place contestant will take a half court shot for an even bigger prize during a timeout in the second half.
Tickets for all Sam Houston home athletic events are on sell now online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the SHSU athletic ticket office 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.
