Bearkat women look to make history
1/25/2011 8:43:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Bearkat women's basketball team will be seeking to make history Wednesday night when they travel to Nacogdoches to face Stephen F. Austin in a 7 p.m. contest at William R. Johnson Coliseum.
No Sam Houston women's team ever has opened Southland Conference action with six consecutive victories in the university's 24-year history in the league.
The 2011 Bearkats and the 1998 women's team both started Southland play with 5-0 records. In 1998, Texas-San Antonio ended the streak with a 67-40 win over SHSU in San Antonio.
To extend their streak to six wins, the Kats will have to top a tough Stephen F. Austin squad led by 5-6 junior Tammara Marion and 5-7 senior Decreasha Goodner who are leading the Jacks with scoring averages of 16.4 and 9.5. SFA enters the contest with a 5-12 season mark and stand 2-2 in Southland action.
Stephen F. Austin holds a 53-6 edge in victories in the all-time women's basketball series with Sam Houston State. The past two years, the pair have been in different divisions and have played only once per season. SFA won 98-85 in Nacogdoches last year. SHSU won 68-65 in Huntsville in 2009 (ending a six-game, three-year Lumberjack winning streak).
The current five-game winning streak equals a mark set by both the 1998 and 2000 teams. 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.
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 16.1 scoring mean. Sequeena Thomas stands seventh in the league in scoring (14.9) and second in rebounds (10.5). Chanice Smith is averaging 11.5 points per game. The trio has combined for 42 double figure scoring performances this season -- 15 by Martin, 14 by Thomas and 13 by Smith.
Both Martin and Thomas have earned Southland Conference "Player of the Week" honors this year. Martin twice has earned awards, the first after a 37-point output in a victory over Charleston Southland that came within one point of tying the school single game scoring mark and the second last week after leading SHSU to wins over Texas State and A&M-Corpus Christi.
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.
During the 5-0 Southland start, the Bearkat women have outscored their opponents 75.0 points per game to 61.2 points per contest.
Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on KHVL 1490 AM.
The Sam Houston women continue their Southland road swing Saturday when they travel to San Antonio for a rematch with UTSA. Next home game for the Bearkats is Wednesday Febrary 2 when they host McNeese State, the only other unbeaten team in Southland play.
