Women look to continue winning streak Wednesday
1/18/2011 7:06:00 AM | Women's Basketball
For the first time since the 2000 season and only the third time in Sam Houston's 24 seasons in the Southland Conference, the Bearkat women are off to a 3-0 league start.
The Sam Houston women look to stretch that streak to four victories Wednesday when they play host to Texas State in a 6:30 p.m. Southland Conference game at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum
The Kats opened 3-0 in 2000 but lost their fourth contest. The 1998 team won its first five league games before suffering a loss. Both the 1998 and 2000 teams rolled up five-game winning streaks during the year. The longest winning streak by a Bearkat women's team at the NCAA Division I level was eight victories by the 1988 squad. Sam Houston head coach Brenda Nichols was the leading scorer for that 1988 team.
Sam Houston stands 9-8 for the season. Texas State brings a 5-10 season mark and 0-2 Southland record into the contest. The Bobcats are led by 5-8 sophomore Diamond Ford who is averaging 12.6 points per game.
Sam Houston holds a 35-33 advantage in the all-time women's basketball series with Texas State. The Bearkats have won the last four meetings, but had to go three overtimes to defeat the Bobcats 92-89 last year in Huntsville. In the pair's earlier 2010 meeting in San Marcos, Sam Houston won 85-81.
Although the Bearkats were predicted to finish in sixth place in the Southland West in the annual preseason poll of the league's head coaches last October, Sam Houston ended pre-Southland play with the best non-conference record in the division. The Bearkats opened their schedule with five wins in their first six games, the program's best start since 1994.
Three Sam Houston players rank among the top 20 scorers in the Southland Conference. All three are sophomores.
Britni Martin ranks third in the Southland with a 15.4 scoring mean. Sequeena Thomas stands seventh in the league in scoring (14.7) and second in rebounds (10.3).
Both Martin and Thomas have earned Southland Conference "Player of the Week" honors this year. Martin earned her award after a 37-point output in a victory over Charleston Southland that came within one point of tying the school single game scoring mark.
Thomas garnered the honor afterThomas posting career highs of 18 rebounds and six blocks in the victory over UTSA Saturday. Thomas scored a career high of 26 points in the victory at Nicholls Saturday.
.Chanice Smith stands 18th in the league with her 11.6 scoring average.
Junior Khamra Echols and sophomore Clarke Davis complete the Bearkats' probable starting lineup. Echols ranks fourth in the Southland in assists this season with 4.4 per game.
