Juniors Michael Holyfield and Kaheem Ransom shined on senior day to send off four Bearkat seniors in their final game at Johnson Coliseum. Sam Houston State (21-9, 13-5) beat New Orleans 80-61 on the back of 17-point performances from Holyfield and Ransom.
“I thought our defensive intensity was good,” head coach Jason Hooten said. “We were flying around and getting our hands on loose balls and steals. When you do that and you get a bunch of dunks and easy baskets it makes things go a lot smoother. We really finished strong, which I was really happy about.”
The Bearkats completely dominated New Orleans in the first half. SHSU jumped out to a 13-0 lead after holding the Privateers scoreless in the first 4:30 of the ballgame.
The Kat defense smothered UNO, forcing 12 turnovers in the first half. The Kats totaled eight steals and scored 17 points off of turnovers.
Michael Holyfield played an outstanding first half, scoring 14 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. He finished the game with a season-high 17 rebounds as well.
“We just came out, played hard and had fun and the game took care of itself,” Holyfield said. “We believe when we're playing our best we can beat anybody in the conference so we've got high hopes going into next week.”
Senior Terrance Motley scored 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds. He drained a three-pointer on his final shot at the Coliseum.
Jabari Peters dished out 10 assists for a season high for the Bearkats. Peters also scored 11 points for his second career double-double.
New Orleans was led by Cory Dixon who scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Christavious Gill added 10 points for the Privateers.
Sam Houston will head to Katy to play in the Southland Conference Tournament next week.
“It will be hard for preparation because we don't know who we'll be playing. So we have to look at both teams and figure out what we did well and didn't do well the last time we played them. We'll work on both teams in practice and then really just concentrate on our team to try to get us better. This is an exciting time of year,” Hooten added.
The Bearkats will play the winner of the No. 6 seed Oral Roberts vs. No. 7 McNeese State game Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
