Huntsville --Nafis Richardson scored 21 points, Gilberto Clavell 20 points and Josten Crow 18 to lead Sam Houston to a 75-65 come-from-behind victory over Southeastern Louisiana Saturday night at Johnson Coliseum.
Down 13 points in the second half, a gritty Bearkats squad never lost its cool. Sam Houston kept scrapping and clawing and got two clutch 3-pointers from Crow and Drae Murray to seize control of the game and run away with a 75-65 victory over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday night at Johnson Coliseum.
"There is going to be a point in time in a game when things aren't going your way and you have to fight and claw and grind," SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. "We talk about having to persevere, fight through it and doing whatever it takes. We did that tonight."
Everything went right for Southeastern Louisiana (4-4 in SLC play, 10-10) to start the second half after the Lions grabbed a 36-32 lead at the break.
Senior guard Trent Hutchin was a one-man wrecking crew. He scored five of his game-high 32 points to spark an 11-2 run which put Southeastern up 47-34 with 15:37 to go in the game.
But Sam Houston was not going down with out a fight. The Bearkats countered with their own run and it was at just the right time and cut the lead to three twice, the latter coming on a pair of free throws by Clavell, who also pulled down 10 boards, with nine minutes to go.
The game was there for the taking and the Kats seized the moment. After a stop, Crow buried a trey to tie the game which brought the crowd to its feet.
Sam Houston once again denied the Lions on the other end and Murray delivered what would be the back breaker when he connected from long range to put Sam Houston up for good at 61-58.
"Basketball is a game of runs and they got away from us there for a little bit," Crow said. "Once we started setting our feet, the tide turned. We played unselfish and that got us back in the game."
Once the Bearkats knocked Southeastern to the ground, the Lions could not get back up.
Hutchin hit a pair of free throws to trim the lead to one, but Crow drilled another 3 and converted a three-point play to cap a 10-0 which extended the Kats lead to 71-60.
One of the keys for the Kats was the production off the bench. Sam Houston's reserves outscored Southeastern's 25-13.
"The bench is one of our main keys," Richardson said. "We are all a cohesive unit. Every day we come in and work hard. I'm one of the bench guys and I always tell the rest of the guys to be ready when your name is called and play hard. That is what we did."
Hutchin was on fire and carried the Lions on Saturday. But after Southeastern took its 13-point lead, Murray was given the assignment to guard Hutchin and shut him down.
With Hutchin missing in action, none of the other Lions made plays down the stretch to fend off the Sam Houston rally.
After its quick start in the opening minutes of the second half, Southeastern ended up only shooting 30 percent from the floor in the final period.
"Hutchin is a great player and unfortunately he got off to a great start," Hooten said. "Man, some of those shots he was making we were all over him. Really good shooters are going to make some of those. You can't give up and have to continue to fight the battle and we did.
"Lance (Pevehouse) picked up that fourth foul and Drae wanted to guard (Hutchin). You know what? He did. We put Drae on him and he did an unbelievable job."
Sam Houston State now heads to Arlington Wednesday to face UT-Arlington in an important road contest at Texas Hall. The Bearkats return to Huntsville Saturday to play host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. in 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 is (936) 294-1729.
