Eastern Washington Visits Tuesday Evening
12/15/2014 2:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Sam Houston men's basketball team puts its perfect home record on the line Tuesday night when the Bearkats play host to a tall and talented squad from Eastern Washington.
The Eagles bring an 8-2 record into Huntsville for the 6:30 p.m. game at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum. That mark includes victories over Indiana, Seattle and San Francisco. Eastern Washington's only losses came to SMU 77-68 and Washington 81-77.
“Eastern Washington is as good a basketball team as we've had come to play in Johnson Coliseum,” SHSU head coach Jason Hooten. “This is going to be a real test for us.”
The Bearkats and the Eagles are playing for the fourth time in their histories. EWU stands 3-0 against Sam Houston, winning 69-66 in Huntsville in 1997, 80-77 in Cheney in 1998 and 81-76 in a mid-season non-conference contest last year.
Venky Jois, a 6-8 junior from Australia, and Tyler Harvey, a 6-4 junior from California, both lead Eastern Washington. The pair each are averaging just over 20 points per contest. Ognjen Milkovic, a 6-7 sophomore from Serbia, adds 13.5 points a game.
Sam Houston is undefeated in three games at home and posted impressive performances on the road in its first eight games. The Bearkats hold NCAA Division I victories over South Dakota (in triple overtime), Fairfield and UT-Pan American.
The Kats have taken three tradition powerhouses to the wire as well. Sam Houston lost by two at UNLV and by three at Texas A&M. Sam Houston had three-point shots at the buzzer for a win at UNLV and a tie at Aggieland. Sam Houston lost to LSU by nine but were within four points in the final minutes.
Senior guards Kaheem Ransom (11.1 points per game) and DeMarcus Gatlin (10.1 ppg) lead Sam Houston with double figure scoring averages.
The Bearkats feature a balanced attack with five other players averaging more than seven points per game. Senior Jabari Peters (8.0 ppg) and junior Paul Baxter (7.4) also start on the perimeter.
Michael Holyfield, a 6-11 senior center, leads the Kats under the boards with 7.8 rebounds per game. Holyfield pulled down a season high 14 rebounds in the loss at LSU.
Sophomores Dakarai Henderson (8.7 ppg) and Aurimas Majauskas (8.4 ppg) come off the bench to add scoring punch to the Kat attack. The Bearkats are averaging 37.3 bench points per contest.
"I really like the way this team battles every game," Hooten said. "Defensively, we're much better than we were last year."
Tuesday's game is the first of three December home games that will finish out the team's non-conference portion of this season's schedule. Sam Houston also plays host to Prairie View A&M at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Howard Payne at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, December 29.
