A thrilling second half comeback by Sam Houston fell just short as McNeese State handed Sam Houston a 72-68 Southland Conference men's basketball game at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles, La.
Led by junior center Aurimas Majauskas with a season best 24 points, Sam Houston overcame a 17-point deficit late in the opening half to take a 52-49 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the game.
James Harvey led McNeese with 23 points as the Cowboys out-scored the Kats 23-16 in the final 11 minutes to up their record to 3-11 for the year and 1-3 in Southland Conference play. The Bearkats dropped to 9-9 for the season and Sam Houston's first loss in five league contests.
“It was more about starting the game with a lack of defensive intensity and crawling too deep into a hole,” Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten said. “In the Southland Conference you have to come out playing good defense from the start. This is a tough lesson for our young team.”
Javante Spivey added 10 points for the Bearkats. Sam Houston ended the contest shooting 38.7 percent (24-of-62) but the Kats came back from a 40-26 halftime deficit to outscore McNeese 42-32 in the final 20 minutes.
“We played better defensively in the second half, holding them to 32 percent shooting after giving up 52 per cent from the floor in the first half,” Hooten said. “The growth and maturity level of those group has grown a lot over the last couple of months. Back in November after we lost our two point guards for the season who would have thought we would have started conference 4-0. McNeese has some good players and they made some big shots against us.”
Tevin Jackson scored 17 for the Cowboys and Craig McFerrin added 11 points. The Bearkats out-rebounded McNeese 40-37 with Majauskas pulling down eight boards and Albert Almanza seven.
Sam Houston had two opportunities late to tie the game in the final 40 seconds but missed two final three-point attempts.
McNeese started the game with a 9-0 run and led by as many as 17 points, 38-21, with 2:25 left in the opening period after the Kats went scoreless for a 4:45 period late in half. Sam Houston shoot just 32 percent in the first 20 minutes (10-of-31) while McNeese went 52 percent from the floor (16-of-31).
