Led by junior center Aurimas Majauskas with 20 points, Sam Houston defeated Bethune-Cookman 71-46 Friday afternoon at the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic.
The win marked the 100th victory for Jason Hooten as the Bearkat men's head coach.
Hooten becomes the sixth head coach in Sam Houston's 96 seasons of play coach the Kats to 100 or more victories. Earning his 100th victory in the fifth game of his sixth season as head coach.
Bob Marlin chalked up his 100th Bearkat victory in the sixth game of his seventh year at Sam Houston in December 2004. Archie Porter racked up win number 100 in January of 1971, his seventh season at the helm of the program.
Hooten joined the Bearkat staff in July 2004 as an assistant coach. He took over as head coach on April 2, 2010. He has directed the Kats to back-to-back 20-victory seasons the past two years.
Junior forward Torry Butler added 16 points and eight rebounds and junior guard Jovante' Spivey posted 12 points for the Bearkats. Sam Houston limited the Wildcats to 33 percent shooting from the field (15 of 46) and forced 17 turnovers. The Kats scored 25 of their points off turnovers.
Majauskas pulled down seven rebounds and Albert Almanza grabbed six. Spivey assisted on four Bearkat baskets.
The victory up Sam Houston's record to 2-3 for the year. Bethune Cookman drops to 2-3.
“It's nice to get the 100th victory but it's more important that we picked up a Division I win on the road and that we got better as a team today,” Hooten said. “We're still without our only returning starter, Paul Baxter, and Ameer Jackson, who has been playing well, had to miss today. We had some guys on the bench who stepped up today.”
The Bearkats trailed only once in the game, going down 9-7 five minutes into the contest. After Jesse Lopez hit a three-pointer to put Sam Houston up 12-9 with 13:16 remaining in the first half, Bethune-Cookman could come no closer than two points.
Sam Houston took a 32-26 lead into the locker room at intermission. A basket by Majauskas in the first minute put the Kats up by eight points, 36-28.
The Wildcats went on a 15-9 run in the next seven minutes to put the SHSU margin to two for a final time, 45-43, with 13:47 remaining. Spivey was fouled on a bucket moments later and sank the free throw for a three-point play that started a 9-0 Bearkat run.
When Majauskas scored with two minutes remaining to make the score 69-44 the Kats completed a 24-1 run during an 11-minute period.
“Both teams looked a little sluggish in the first half. We missed some easy shots early,” Hooten said. “At halftime, we talked about how we've given up runs of 15-1 and 16-0 in our previous games and what we needed to do to flip that script. We got a bunch of stops on a really good defensive stretch during that 11-minutes run.”
Sam Houston returns to Huntsville to play host to Wiley College Sunday night at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum. Tipoff is at 6:30 p.m.
“We're excited to get back to Huntsville,” Hooten said. “We've had some good, loud crowds in our first two home games and hope we can get another one Sunday night in a game that can get us back to .500 for the year.”
