Sam Houston played stout defense and held the Northwestern State Demons to well below their shooting average on the way to a 75-64 win Monday night at Johnson Coliseum. The Bearkats advanced to 2-0 in Southland play and will head on the road.
The Bearkats stifled a Demon team that averages more than 80 points a game and has averaged nearly 50% shooting from the floor. The Kats held the Southland's leading scorer Zeek Woodley to just 11 points.
“I knew this was going to be a tough one, just like the one on Saturday was,” SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. “We didn't have our best stuff tonight but we found a way to win the game. We played really hard defensively, I thought we did a great job of rebounding and we made our free throws. Those things were important tonight.”
For the second consecutive game, five Sam Houston players scored in double figures. Junior guard Paul Baxter and senior center Michael Holyfield shared the team lead with 13 points. Baxter also shared the team lead with five assists.
Guards Demarcus Gatlin and Dakarai Henderson each scored 12 points. Gatlin also pulled down 11 rebounds, including five on the offensive side.
Kaheem Ransom added 11 points and pulled down nine rebounds. The team's leading rebounder in the game was fellow senior guard Jabari Peters with 13.
The Kats outrebounded the Demons 54-40.
Northwestern State kept it close to start the second half but the Kats quickly grew the lead to double figures. SHSU didn't allow NSU to get closer than seven points over the final 15 minutes of the ballgame.
“I feel like there were times we could have put them away,” said Dakarai Henderson. “We were being a little too passive and worried too much about their pressure at times. But I feel like toward the end we started getting it together and started to put it more away.”
Sam Houston led for the majority of the first half but was never ahead by more than six points. Playing at a break-neck pace at times, the lead changed 12 times in the half and the game was tied seven times.
The Bearkats held Northwestern State to just 25% shooting from the field in the first half. The Demons hit only four of their 15 three-point attempts. SHSU wasn't much better from long range, hitting 3-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Sam Houston's lead could have been larger but the Kats were a little sloppy with the basketball, turning it over 11 times. But the Bearkats dominated inside in the first half, outrebounding the Demons 32-19 and outscoring them 16-8 in the paint.
The Kats will have the next two games on the road, starting with New Orleans Saturday at 6:15 p.m. before heading to Southeastern Louisiana for a 7 p.m. game Monday, January 12.
