Stephen Austin pulled away in the final five minutes to earn a 64-55 victory over Sam Houston Saturday in Nacogdoches. The victory earned the Jacks outright possession of the 2015 Southland Conference men's basketball regular season championship.

Senior guard Jabari Peters led the Kats with 13 points. Making his first start as a Bearkat, Jamal Williams totaled 11 points. Dakari Henderson also scored 11.

Finishing the regular season 27-4 and league play 17-1, SFA will be the No. 1 seed at the Southland Conference Tournament in Katy next week.

Sam Houston, as regular season runner-up with a 24-7 overall mark and a 15-3 SLC record, will be the No. 2 season. Both have earned byes into the semifinal round of the event on Friday.

A Bearkat victory Saturday would have made the Jacks and Kats co-champions.

“We played some really good defense tonight,” Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten. “We had plenty of opportunities but free throws and turnovers did us in.”

Sam Houston was 18-of-50 from the field (36 percent) and 13-of 24 from the line (54 percent). SFA went 22-of-50 from the floor (44 percent) and 19 of 28 at the charity stripe (68 percent). Sixteen of the Jacks' free throw points came in the final three minutes.

“Everybody on our team did a good job and played hard, but we didn't get the job done,” Hooten said. “Our biggest goal, to earn a berth in the NCAA Championships, is still out there and we'll start working on that now.”

SFA was led by Thomas Walkup with 19 points. Clide Geffrard added 11 points.

The Jacks got off to another quick start, building a 13-3 lead in the first seven minutes of the contest. Junior guard Paul Baxter started chopping away at the lead with a three-point basket at the 13:10 mark.

Williams sank a lay-up as part of a 10-2 run for the SHSU men to cut the SFA lead to 15-13 with 8:10 to play. The Jacks pulled away again, building a 23-17margin with 6:12 left in the half on a basket by Jared Johnson.

Again Sam Houston fought back, finishing the period with an 8-4 run. Williams again was a key with a jumper for two points and a pair of free throws to send both teams into the locker rooms at intermission down by just one point, 26-25.

Sam Houston hit only eight of their 23 shots in the first half for a 34.8 percentage in the opening 20 minutes. Stephen F. Austin countered with 44.4 percent shooting (12-of-27).

Williams opened the second half with a free throw to tie the game 26-26 after only 11 seconds. Two minutes later, Jabari Peters' three-pointer put Sam Houston up 29-28.

While two quick baskets put SFA in front again 34-29, baskets by Baxter, Dakarai Henderson and DeMarcus Gatlin kept the Kats within two, 38-36 at 12:15, 40-38 with 10:50 left and 42-40 at the 9:10 mark. Gatlin's dunk with 8:49 left tied the contest 42-42.

Marcus Burwell tied the game a third time 44-44 with a lay-up at the 8:09 mark. The Kats, however, could not get over the hump as SFA ended the contest with a 20-11 run. Sixteen of those points were free throws.

Tickets for the Southland Conference Tournament in Katy are available on line now at www.gobearkats.com