Men face Texas A&M on road Wednesday night
12/2/2014 11:49:00 AM | Men's Basketball
While the Bearkats will be facing their toughest opponent of the season so far Wednesday night at Texas A&M, head coach Jason Hooten is looking forward to his team's 7 p.m. encounter with the Aggies at Reed Arena in College Station.
“It's always a great opportunity to play a team like Texas A&M that everybody knows,” Hooten said. “It's nice that it's only an hour away and we get to eat pregame here in Huntsville and just drive over. But the big thing about this game is what it will tell us about ourselves.”
Texas A&M stands 4-1 this year with wins over Northwestern State, College of Charleston, New Mexico and New Orleans. The Aggies are outscoring their opponents 74.4 to 57.8. Their only loss is to Dayton by two points, 55-53.
“Texas A&M is really good,” Hooten said. “They have a pair a transfers - one from Houston and one from SMU - that bring a lot to their team. They have a really good chance to be an NCAA tournament team. That's great because that's what we want to be. Going over there Wednesday will tell us how much better we've gotten, or how much further we have to go to reach our goal.”
Wednesday's game will be broadcast live via the internet at www.gobearkats.com .
Daniel House, a 6-7 207-pound forward from UH, leads the Aggies with 16.0 points per game. Jalen Jones, a 6-7 222 transfer from SMU added 12.8 points and is A&M's top rebounder with 7.2 per game. Peyton Allen, a 6-5 freshman, sports an 8.8 scoring mean.
Sam Houston brings a 4-2 record into Wednesday's road matchup. The Bearkats own victories over South Dakota, Fairfield, Austin College and University of the Southwest. Sam Houston's two losses, both on the road, were to UNLV 59-57 and Wofford 64-53.
Senior guard DeMarcus Gatlin leads Sam Houston with 10.2 points per game. Another senior, Kaheem Ransom, also is averaging in double figures with 10.0 points per contest.
Starting center senior Michael Holyfield is averaging 9.0 points and 7.2 rebounds while his backup, sophomore Aurimas Majauskas, is adding 9.3 points and 3.3 rebounds.
A Bearkat strength this season is their depth. Sam Houston's is averaging 39.7 bench points per contest.
Following the trip to Aggieland Wednesday, Sam Houston will play host to Texas-Pan American Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
