Stephen F. Austin took control early and never trailed to hand Sam Houston a 76-64 Southland Conference men's basketball loss in Nacogdoches Saturday night.

The victory keeps SFA unbeaten in league action with a 6-0 conference mark and 13-5 for the season. Bearkats dropped to 10-10 for the year and 5-2 in Southland play.

The Lumberjacks rocketed to a 13-2 start in the game's opening six minutes and led by 17 points, 34-17, with 6:17 remaining in the first half.  Sam Houston bounced back from a 44-29 halftime deficit to cut the Jack margin to with single digits late in the game but could not catch up.

Aurimas Majauskas led Sam Houston with 17 points. Dakarai Henderson scored 13 points and both Albert Almanza and Torry Butler added 10. Clide Geffrard totaled 22 and Thomas Walkup posted 16 points to lead SFA.

“It's obvious Stephen F. Austin has some very good players,” Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten said. “We needed to get off to a good start against them but didn't. It takes so much effort to get out of a hole like that. The difference in the game was the turnovers they caused.”

Sam Houston had 11 turnovers in the first half. Sixteen of SFA's first half points came off of turnovers.

“We did a better job in the second half with only six turnovers,” Hooten said. “Give SFA credit. They played hard, but so did we.”

Late in the first half, the Bearkats got within 10, 37-27, on a Henderson free throw at the 2:25 mark. SFA took a 44-29 lead into the locker room at intermission.

Sam Houston started the second half with five unanswered points as Aurimas Majaukas pulled the Kats to within 10 points, 44-34, with 16:51 remaining. Three minutes later, a three-pointer by Majaukas brought the Kats back within 11, 54-43 with 13:66 to play.

SFA went on a 10-5 run in the next five minutes to extend the Jacks' lead to 64-48 with 7:58 to play. Sam Houston kept fighting and, after a pair of free throws by Torry Butler, the Kats had pulled within seven points in the final minutes but could get no closer.

“We've got to bounce back quickly,” Hooten said. “We have a game Monday night against the most improved team in the league, Abilene Christian. That's our biggest concern right now.”

The Bearkats and the ACU Wildcats will tip off at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.