Kaheem Ransom scored a season-high 18 points as Sam Houston State rolled to a 79-50 win over Lamar Monday night at Johnson Coliseum. The Bearkats never trailed in the game and improved to 9-1 in Southland play.

Ransom had one of his best games of the season, hitting 6-of-12 from the floor and tying his season high for points scored. He finished with two rebounds and two assists as well.

“We just played really well tonight. I can be kind of a perfectionist but looking at the stat sheet I can't really see anything we didn't do well,” Bearkat head coach Jason Hooten said. “I thought we executed and I really thought the guys that came off the bench did a great job of executing as well.”

Sam Houston started both halves in dominant fashion. The Bearkats kept Lamar off the board for the first three minutes of the ballgame while SHSU quickly jumped out to a 5-0 lead. The Cardinals hit only two of their first 10 shots.

In the second half, Lamar scored two quick baskets before Sam Houston went on a 13-0 run to grow the lead to 27 points. The Kats led by as many as 35 points in the game.

In addition to Ransom, four other Bearkat players scored in double figures. Paul Baxter, Michael Holyfield and Aurimas Majauskas each scored 11 points. Holyfield also pulled down 11 rebounds. Dakarai Henderson added 10 points for Sam Houston.

The Kats only shot 35% in the first half but still managed to lead Lamar 37-22 at the break. SHSU capitalized on seven Lamar turnovers, scoring 11 points off of the first-half takeaways. Sam Houston hit 50% from the field in the second half to blow the game open.

“I thought we played great in the first half and we just had a couple of shots go in and out. In the second half they went in. We shot 50% in the second half and I was really happy about that,” Hooten said.

The Bearkats will continue their home stand and host A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The Islanders are 6-2 in Southland play but host Incarnate Word Tuesday night before coming to Huntsville.