Four Bearkats scored in double figures to lead the Sam Houston State men's basketball team to a 102-47 win over Howard Payne Monday night at Johnson Coliseum. The Kats will turn their attention to Southland play with the league opener Saturday, Jan. 3 against Incarnate Word.

“We came out tonight and played with intensity for 40 minutes, which is what we talked about doing,” SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. “We wanted to try to go into conference play with a really good taste in our mouth.”

Sophomore guard Dakarai Henderson led the Bearkats with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He hit his only three-point attempt of the game and made three free-throws.

Junior transfer Marcus Burwell scored 15 points and was 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. He went 5-of-8 overall in the game.

Demarcus Gatlin scored the first basket of the game, giving SHSU a 2-0 lead and the Bearkats never trailed. The senior finished with 13 points and was nearly perfect from the floor, making four of his five baskets and 3-of-4 three-pointers.

SHSU made a game-high 15 three-pointers in the win and hit 44% of their attempts. The Kats previous high this season was 13 treys against Eastern Washington.

“We haven't shot it quite like we're capable of doing but we did it tonight. That's the exciting part about right now, we're not at that ceiling that we can get to. We shot the ball well but we still have a lot of things we can get better at. We want to start climbing that mountain and you don't want to peak until the end,” Hooten said.

Senior guard Kaheem Ransom finished with 11 points, six assists and six rebounds.

Junior guard Paul Baxter led the Bearkats with seven assists and senior post player Michael Holyfield was the team's leading rebounder with nine. Holyfield also added nine points.

Senior Jabari Peters scored seven points and sophomore Aurimas Majauskas added seven points off the bench.

Junior big man Sean Goodwin came off the bench and assisted on six baskets. Sophomore Jesse Lopez was the beneficiary of half of those assists, scoring six points off the bench.

Howard Payne was led by Khyce Randall's 13 points while Brandon Gould added nine points before fouling out of the game.

Sam Houston lost to Incarnate Word on the road last season in the two team's first ever Southland matchup. The Cardinals have a strong team again with an 8-2 record and a win over Nebraska. Tip off for the league opener is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Saturday.