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. The win keeps the Bearkats firmly in second place in the Southland Conference.

“That was a great basketball game and I knew coming in that it would be,” SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. “I think if we had just made free-throws tonight like we normally do this would have been a 12-15 point game.”

The first half was a defensive struggle but the Bearkats managed to jump ahead 26-12 at halftime. Sam Houston held A&M-Corpus Christi to just two made baskets through the first eight minutes of the game. The Islanders only managed five made baskets and a pair of free-throws in the first half.

It took the Islanders until the 3:02 mark to break into double figures. They shot just 23% in the first period, while the Bearkats hit 40% of their shots. Sam Houston led by as many as 16 points.

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.

Sam Houston was uncharacteristically bad from the free-throw line, hitting just 15-of-29 from the charity stripe. The Bearkats came into the game making 70% of their free throws.

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.

“Kaheem (Ransom) is one of the best on-the-ball defenders I've ever coached. He guarded one of the best guards in our league and one of the better guards in the country tonight. He gets up for challenges and every time he plays a really great player like that he does a great job on him. I told him that when he plays great defense like that, his offense is really good too,” said Hooten.

Michael Holyfield was dominant in the pain, pulling down 11 rebounds and blocking a pair of shots. He only scored two baskets in the game but they were big. In the final minutes he finished off a pair of alley-oops to put the Islanders away.

DeMarcus Gatlin was the Bearkats second-leading scorer with 14 points, while also totaling nine boards. Dakarai Henderson added 12 points off of the bench, burying four three-pointers.

The Bearkats will take a short break from league play to host Texas College Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Johnson Coliseum.