Bearkat Madness Tipped Off Basketball
11/4/2015 8:37:00 AM | Men's Basketball
More than 1500 students welcomed the start of 2015-16 Sam Houston basketball season at the second annual Bearkat Madness celebration at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum Tuesday night.
Sam Houston men's and women's head coaches Jason Hooten and Brenda Welch-Nichols introduced their teams to the students and fans. Special interactive three-point shooting and dunk contests followed.
“This is a great turnout,” Hooten told the crowd. “Let's get all of you back in the coliseum on November 17 for our first home game and we will have the place rocking.”
Hooten's men's basketball squad has totaled 50 victories in back-to-back 20-plus win seasons that were highlighted by consecutive appearances in the Southland Conference tournament finals in Katy and victories in NCAA post-season play in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
“We're going to have an exciting team this year with Shernise Robertson and Angela Beadle back and some great talent around those two,” Welch-Nichols said. “It was great to see the support from the students.”
Robertson and Beadle both are returning All-Southland Conference players. Robertson was the league's top scorer in her first season at Sam Houston after transferring from Tyler Junior College. Beadle was the third-leading rebounder in the league two years ago who missed last year with an injury.
“We are so much deeper this year both inside at post and on the perimeter,” Welch-Nichols said. “We're going to be able to play more up tempo this season and should be a fun team to watch.”
The Sam Houston men's team returns only one starter, Paul Baxter, from last year's 26-9 squad. But three players who saw extensive action as reserves – Aurimas Majauskas, Dakarai Henderson and Jamal Williams – return to mix with a talented group of newcomers.
“We've definitely added some weapons offensively,” Hooten said. “Like any program with a lot of new players, we're not a finished product right now. But we like the work ethic and toughness of this group. We're ready to get started.”
The Sam Houston women open their season with an exhibition game against Mary Hardin-Baylor at 3 p.m. Saturday at Johnson Coliseum. The women's regular season opener is Friday November 13 in Fort Worth against TCU. The Kats' first home regular season contest is the annual “Pack the House” game on Friday November 20 at 11 a.m. at Johnson.
The Bearkat men start the year at SMU in Dallas on Saturday November 14. Southland Conference runners-up the past two seasons, the men open at home with Saint Thomas and Southern Illinois on Tuesday, November 17 and Saturday November 21, respectively.
Season tickets for both men's and women's basketball at Sam Houston are available now online at www.gobearkats.com or at the Sam Houston athletic ticket office located on the west side of Elliott T. Bowers Stadium. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
