A&M-Corpus Christi Foe In Tonight's Semifinal
3/13/2015 8:08:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sam Houston State will take on No. 3 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Merrell Center in Katy.
The Islanders defeated New Orleans 61-58 in the quarterfinal round Thursday. Friday's semifinal winner earns a spot in Saturday's Southland championship game against the victor of Friday's other semifinal bout between regular season champion Stephen F. Austin and No. 4 seed Northwestern State.
Friday's match-up with the Islanders is a repeat of last year's semifinal in Katy for the Bearkats. The only difference is that Sam Houston came into the contest as the No. 3 seed after a victory over Oral Roberts.
Led by Kaheem Ransom with 15 points, the Kats upset the higher seeded squad from Corus Christi 69-63.
“It was another great game – a grind-it-out, hard-fought battle,” SHSU head coach Jason Hooten said. “We have a lot of respect for coach Willis Wilson and his program. They are a well-coached team and played great defense. We played two tough games with them already this year and don't expect anything different.”
Sam Houston and A&M-Corpus Christi split in their meetings this year. The Bearkats won 67-59 in Huntsville on February 7. The Islanders edged the Kats 61-59 on February 24.
Ransom again was the leading scorer in SHSU's win over the Islanders with 19 points. The first half was a defensive struggle with the Kats taking a 26-12 lead at halftime. A&M-Corpus Christi stormed back, out-scoring the SHSU men 47-41 in the second period. Twice the Islanders pulled to within six points but Sam Houston held on.
Three weeks later, John Jordan tallied 19 points to lead A&M-Corpus Christi to a two-point win over the Bearkats. The Islanders limited the Kats to one of their poorest shooting nights of the year (34 percent). Paul Baxter led Sam Houston with 15 points. After a three-point basketball by Bryce Douvier put TAMCC ahead 50-47 with four to play, the SHSU men never fell more than three points behind but could not close the game.
Jordan was the leading scorer for the Islanders Thursday with 22 points in the victory over New Orleans. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is the only team in the Southland to defeat both first place Stephen F. Austin and second place Sam Houston during the regular season.
Islander coach Wilson talked about the Bearkats in his post-game news conference Friday in Katy.
“I think they're the best defensive team in the league in terms of field goal percentage,” Wilson said. “They've done a really great job all year long of making teams have to earn it and that's been reflective of their defensive field goal percentages.”
The Sam Houston versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi game will be telecast live on ESPN3. The contest also will be streamed live at http://southland.org/espn3 or http://WatchESPN.com .
Lincoln Rose will call the play-by-play and Jim Haller with be the analyst. Randy McIlvoy will serve as host.
KSAM 101.7 FM will broadcast the game live in the Walker County area.
