SEMIFINALS POST-GAME NEWS CONFERENCE VIDEO
KATY -- Led by Kaheem Ransom with 15 points and James Thomas with 12, Sam Houston defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 69-63 Friday night at the Leonard Merrell Center in Katy to advance to the Southland Conference tournament finals.
Jabari Peters scored 11 and Terrance Motley added eight points. Michael Holyfield led the team with nine rebounds.
The No. 3 seed in the tournament, the Bearkats will take on No. 1 Stephen F. Austin in the championship game Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
"It was another great game," SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. "A&M-Corpus Christi is a well coached team and they played great defense. It was a grind-it-out, hard fought ball game, which is what we expected."
Sam Houston hit 56 percent from the floor in the first half but struggled in the second, going just 4-of-18, shooting 22 percent.
"This is the kind of game I don't think we could have won a couple of months ago," Hooten said. "But these guys have bought it to what we're trying to do defensively. There are going to be those nights where the shots don't fall. But we battled, played defense and made free throws and now we're in the finals."
The Bearkats took up where they left off Thursday night in the win over ORU with some hot shooting from beyond the arc early in the game. Three of the team's first five field goals were 3-pointers.
A&M-Corpus Christi held a brief 5-3 lead two minutes into the game, but Ransom's second three-point at the 17:12 mark put SHSU ahead to stay.
Up by three seven minutes later, 17-14, Sam Houston went on a 15-4 run. Peters put the Bearkats ahead 32-18 with an old-fashioned three-point point at the 4:28 mark. The Bearkats took a 39-29 lead into the locker room at intermission after shooting 56 percent from the field in the first half (14-of-25).
Leading 45-31 with 14:45 to play, Sam Houston suddenly hit a cold spell, going scoreless for the next seven minutes. A&M-Corpus Christi responded, going on a 9-0 run to cut the Kat margin to 45-40 with 8:06 remaining. Seven of the nine points came on free throws.
Dakarai Henderson ended the drought with a free throw at the 7:51 mark and Michael Holyfield added another charity point 40 seconds later as SHSU extended its lead to 47-40 with 7:09 left. SHSU still held a seven-point lead, 54-47, at the last media time out with 3:47 to go.
The Bearkats hit 12-of-14 from the line and a lay-up in the final three minutes to earn the trip to the finals.
Sam Houston will be making its fourth appearance in the Southland tournament finals. The Bearkats won in two of those three games, defeating SFA in both victories. SHSU won 69-66 in overtime in Huntsville in 2003 and 64-48 in Katy in 2010.
The Kats are 4-2 against the Lumberjacks in post-season league play.
Stephen F. Austin defeated Sam Houston 73-56 in Nacogdoches and 67-60 in Huntsville on the way to a perfect 18-0 record to win the league regular season title.
The Lumberjacks defeated Northwestern State 85-78 in the other semifinals. The Demons, who defeated SFA in last year's finals after the Jacks won the regular season title, led with under seven minutes to play.
Saturday's championship game will be covered exclusively by ESPN2 Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with the championship trophy presentation to be carried live on ESPN3.
The winner of the tournament will receive the Southland's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The selection show is Sunday, March 16 at 5 p.m., on CBS.
Tickets to the 2014 Southland Conference basketball tournament are available now online at www.gobearkats.com or by calling the SHSU ticket office at (936) 294-1729.
This is the seventh consecutive year for the event to be played in Katy. For complete information about the tournament, visit www.Southland.org/katy.
The complete men's tournament schedule:
Wednesday, March 12
Game 1: No. 5 Nicholls 71, No. 8 Southeastern Louisiana 64
Game 2: No. 6 Oral Roberts 66, No. 7 McNeese 62
Thursday, March 13
Game 3: No. 4 Northwestern State 88, No. 5 Nicholls 72
Game 4: No. 3 SAM HOUSTON 70, No. 6 Oral Roberts 61
Friday, March 14
Game 5: Stephen F. Austin 85, Northwestern State 78
Game 6: Sam Houston 69 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 63
Saturday, March 15
Championship Game, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
