The Sam Houston State men's basketball team went toe-to-toe with No. 14 Cal, trailing 23-20 midway through the first half, before the Bears took off on a 15-0 run over the next 6 ½ minutes, sparking an 89-63 win at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif., on Monday night.
The Bearkats (1-2) jumped out to a 7-0 lead but the Bears recovered in a hurry, rattling off a 10-0 run. Cal (4-0) used a strong inside presence, highlighted by a 50-26-point advantage in the paint, while holding its fourth straight opponent to under-40 percent shooting from the field.
“It's obviously disappointing with that run they had,” Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten said. “We probably had three or four (turnovers) during that crucial stretch. It got the crowd energized. We felt like defensively we didn't give them a bunch of easy transition points and I thought we did that up until that stretch.”
Sam Houston junior guard Dakarai Henderson registered his fourth straight double-digit scoring affair, posting a team-leading 13 points behind a 5-for-12 effort from the field. The Pearland product is averaging 18.75 per game.
Elsewhere, guard Jamal Williams and forward Jalin Barnes put home season highs, finishing with 12 and 10 points respectively. Forward Torry Butler also dished out seven assists along with four points.
“I thought Jalin at the point was great against an NBA-type point guard,” Hooten said. “We had a couple guys with good performances off the bench. Josh (Delaney) got some of his first action. You learn by playing in those situations. I was very pleased with him tonight.”
Sam Houston knocked down five first-half three pointers, including a Henderson trey with 55 seconds left to cut the Cal lead to 14, but could muster just two more in the second half. The Bearkats finished 7-of-21 from downtown, with makes coming from six different players.
Aurimas Majauskas hit a pair of buckets to open the second half, but picked up his fourth foul shortly after and fifth with 8:28 remaining, sidelining the 6-8 center. The Marijampole, Lithuania, product tallied four points and one board.
The Bears, building on their reputation as a quality transition team, were led by forward Jaylen Brown's 18 points and 11 rebounds. Teammate Tyrone Wallace added an equally impressive game, notching 17 points and team-leading seven assists.
Sam Houston turned over the ball a season-low seven times, trimming 10 off its overtime loss to Southern Illinois on Saturday, while Cal gave the ball away six times. The Bears were able to convert 10 points off the turnovers while Sam Houston managed two.
“You never want to get kicked around by the No. 14 team in the country, but I did see some positives we could take away and turnovers were one,” Hooten said. “Any time you only turn over the ball seven times you have to be excited.”
The game was the first of two as part of the Las Vegas Invitational for Sam Houston, who will take on either Stetson or Bethune Cookman on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in Vegas.
“It's tough right now to play opponents like SMU and Cal but we will pay dividends for playing games like this,” Hooten said. “When we get to those crucial games in conference in February and March, we will be ready.”
