SHSU men face tough task in Corpus Saturday
2/27/2015 10:39:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Riding an eight-game winning streak and tied for first place with Stephen F. Austin in the Southland Conference standings, the Sam Houston men's basketball team faces its toughest challenge in several weeks Saturday evening when they battle the Texas A&M Corpus-Christi Islanders on the road.
The Islanders bring a 15-12 overall mark and stand 10-5 in the league. A&M-Corpus Christi is the only Southland team to hand the defending champion Lumberjacks a loss this year.
A&M-Corpus Christi is led by sophomore Rashawn Thomas who has scored at least 15 points in seven of the last nine games. He posted a double-double against New Orleans with 16 points and 14 boards with a career-high six blocks. He is averaging 21.6 points when prorated to 40 minutes.
The game in Corpus Christi is the first of three road matchups for Sam Houston in their final four regular season games.
With a 22-5 record the 2015 Bearkats stand as Sam Houston's eighth 20-win team at the NCAA Division I level. Head Coach Jason Hooten has been a part of six of the 20-win seasons since joining the Bearkat staff as an assistant in for the 2005 season.
Since losing to Stephen F. Austin in Huntsville, Sam Houston State has rattled off eight consecutive victories, out-scoring their opponents 75.6 points per game to 52.2.
In those eight games, the Bearkats have trailed only once (Houston Baptist led by 3-2 lead a minute into the contest in Huntsville January 31). The SHSU men have been tied twice (at 2-2 with A&M-Corpus Christi and 3-3 with Abilene Christian) during the streak.
The SHSU men got off to starts of 20-3 at Abilene Christian and 24-5 in Huntsville, 16-2 versus Houston Baptist in Huntsville and 24-5 in Houston and 24-0 against Texas College.
In the first half alone, the Bearkats have outscored the eight opponents 325 points to 167.
Sam Houston's 22-5 record this winter stand as the Bearkat men's best start in 28 seasons in the Southland Conference and the tops since the SHSU men stood 24-3 on the way to the 1986 NCAA Division II regional playoffs.
Several statistics illustrate Sam Houston's balanced scoring attack in 2015. Seven players are averaging 7.9 points per game or more. Each of those seven players has led the Bearkats in scoring in more than one game. The seven players have scored in double figures in a combined 68 games. Senior guards DeMarcus Gatlin and Jabari Peters have led Bearkat scoring this most with Gatlin the top point-getter in eight contests this year and Peters in seven outings
Kaheem Ransom scored a season-high 19 points to lead Sam Houston to a 65-59 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday at Johnson Coliseum in the pair's first meeting earlier this year.
The first half was a defensive struggle but the Bearkats managed to jump ahead 26-12 at halftime.
A&M-Corpus Christi stormed back in the second half and shot 50% from the field, cutting the Bearkat lead to six on two occasions. One of those occasions was with 1:11 left to play, but the Kats managed to hang on. SHSU was outscored 47-41 in the second half.
Ransom had a great game on both ends of the floor, leading the Kats in scoring, and guarding A&M-Corpus Christi's leading scorer John Jordan. The Islander point guard, finished the game with 15 points but scored nine of those points in the final 4:18 of the game.
Following the trip to Corpus Christi, the Kats return home Monday night to face Central Arkansas at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
