Lance Pevehouse tied his career high with 23 points to lead the Bearkats to an 88-67 Southland Conference men's basketball victory over UTSA SAturday night at Johnson Coliseum.
Sam Houston (10-10, 3-4) snapped a three-game losing streak with the victory.
Seniors Josten Crow and Gilberto Clavell chipped in 17 and 15 points, respectively, and junior Drae Murray poured 13. Juniors Marcus James and Nafis Richardson just missed reaching double digits, scoring nine and eight points to help the Bearkats improve to 3-4 in Southland Conference action and pull even at 10-10 on the season.
"The more production we get from other guys, the better team we will become," SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. "We have to continue to get consistency from Lance, Crow and Clavell and we have to have other guys step up. I thought we did tonight. Marcus came in and gave us a quick boost and Nafis came in and gave us a boost and lots of energy."
The Bearkats struggled offensively and defensively in a 63-49 loss to rival Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday, a game in which Clavell accounted for more than half of the team's offense with 26 points. The Lumberjacks also shot 60 percent from the field and turned 17 Sam Houston turnovers into 23 points.
Oh, and the Kats also went 0 for 11 from behind the arc.
But Saturday, Richardson and James provided an early spark off the bench, leading a 6-0 run to put Sam Houston up 7-6 after beginning the game down four.
Pevehouse ended the 3-point drought early with a trey six and a half minutes into the contest and the offense took off from there. Murray followed with another long-range bomb to give the Kats the lead for good at 13-11.
Sam Houston shot 57 percent for the game (28 of 49) and 48 percent from deep (10 of 21) to complete the season sweep of the Roadrunners (3-3 in SLC, 10-9 overall).
"(Knocking down 3s) made the game a whole lot easier," said Pevehouse, who was 8 for 11 from the field and 5 for 8 on 3-point attempts. "Clavell ended up being more wide open because we hit the outside shots. Everybody hit 3s tonight. It was a good game from the 3-point line, probably our best game of the year."
The Bearkats started to pull away from the Roadrunners with under five minutes to go in the first half thanks to defensive stops turning into easy transition baskets.
Clavell, Richardson and Crow each hit baskets to push the lead to 27-19. Murray got a steal and took it the length of the court for another score, then picked off a pass and pushed it ahead to Pevehouse to make it 31-19.
Sam Houston had 10 steals in the contest and scored 22 points off UTSA's 16 turnovers.
"We got out and took a couple of (turnovers) and turned those into transition baskets to extend the lead," Hooten said.
The Bearkats defense never allowed the Roadrunners to go on any runs in the second half to get back in the game. Not only did Sam Houston match everything UTSA did offensively, the Kats did more.
The contest really got out of hand when Clavell knocked down a couple of free throws after Roadrunners head coach Brooks Thompson was hit with a technical foul. Murray followed with two more shots from the stripe to make it 61-42 with 10:12 left to go in the game.
James then delivered the knockout punch. Murray kept a possession alive when UTSA tried to trap and passed ahead to Crow. Crow whipped a behind-the-back pass to James, who threw down a dunk.
The best was yet to come. James got a fastbreak and left his feet to leap toward the basket just past the free-throw line. The junior college transfer then one-handed punched it on UTSA forward T.J. Williams to bring the crowd to its feet.
James also drew a foul and converted a three-point play. Following a missed 3-pointer by Roadrunner senior Devin Gibson, who scored 20 points, Crow drilled a trey to make it 69-45 with just over nine minutes to go.
The Bearkats outscored UTSA's bench 20-14 with sophomore Aaron Thompson also getting in on the action with three points.
"This is the time of the year we needed this game. We are just trying to build on this one," James said.
Sam Houston will get a week's break before taking on Southeastern Louisiana in a 7 p.m. home game Saturday, February 5, at Johnson Coliseum.
Tickets for all Sam Houston home athletic events are on sale online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the SHSU 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 number is (936) 294-1729.
