High Noon Showdown With SFA
3/7/2012 7:09:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin will go head-to-head Wednesday, but this Battle of the Piney Woods is in Katy for a spot in the Southland Conference tournament semifinals.
The Bearkats (13-18 overall, 7-9 Southland) made it to the tournament with a win over Texas State in the last game of the season. Before the win over the Bobcats, Sam Houston played the Lumberjacks at home and fell 58-47.
None of that matters in the conference tournament, as the season restarts and every team's record is 0-0 going in. Still, the Bearkats don't want the regular season's history to repeat itself by falling to their biggest rival for the third time this season.
"We're going to try some different stuff against them since the first two times didn't work in our favor," Sam Houston point guard Darius Gatson said before Tuesday's practice. "We played better up there and they played harder here. All we can do is bring more effort and more energy. We'll try to focus more on the scouting report and things we can do against them."
The Lumberjacks are a slow-pace, methodical team that likes to use their advantages in the post. Stephen F. Austin's best post players, senior Jereal Scott and junior Taylor Smith, are only averaging 10.5 points apiece against the Bearkats, with Smith averaging eight rebounds and Scott grabbing five boards in the two contests with Sam Houston.
Scott and Smith have been decoys for the Lumberjacks' offense more than anything. In the overtime win earlier this season, Scott scored 15 points, just two more than his season average. The difference in that game was sophomore Desmond Haymon hitting three 3-pointers and scoring a season-high 18 points.
When the Bearkats lost to Stephen F. Austin last Wednesday, Smith scored 12 points, which is three points over his season average. But it was point guard Darius Gardner, who finished the regular season averaging 4.6 points a game, who torched Sam Houston with a trio of three-point baskets, while scoring a game-high 14 points.
What the Lumberjacks do is dump the ball in the post to command double teams, knowing that opposing defenses would rather take their chances with the SFA shooters than the proven scorers down low.
"They kind of want to make it a possession game," Sam Houston's leading scorer Konner Tucker said of the Jacks. "They don't like to run up and down that much. That's something we kind of like to do. They want it to be a low-possession game and we want it kind of higher, so I guess it comes down to who decides the tempo."
"I think in the first game they were aware of me, but they weren't that aware of me," Tucker said. "So I kind of got some pretty good shots at first and at the end of the game I was just kind of feeling it so I hit some tougher shots.
"Then here, I guess they were really trying to keep me from scoring the ball and they did a pretty good job of it. I only had seven points. They were just being physical and running me off screens. They knew the plays we were running and scouted us pretty good."
That means something has to change in this first round game.
Sam Houston can throw everything at Stephen F. Austin, even the kitchen sink if they have to. The Bearkats have it in perspective that everything they have played for this season boils down to this game and what they do with that narrow opportunity that almost wasn't there.
"It's a big excitement," Gatson added. "Coming into the season, that was one of our goals - to get to Katy. And to make it has been a blessing but we're not satisfied. Now that we've made, we got to keep going. We still got bigger accomplishments to get to."
Game time is scheduled for 12 noon and can be viewed on the live stream at www.southland.org .
