Northwestern State Next for Bearkat Men
1/4/2016 4:40:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MEN'S BASKETBALL MONDAY NIGHT IN LOUISIANA
Sam Houston vs. Northwestern State
Prather Coliseum, Natchitoches, La.
7:30 p.m. Live on KSAM 101.7 FM
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE OPENING VICTORY
For the fourth season in a row and the 11th time in the past 16 seasons, the Sam Houston men opened Southland Conference play with a victory. The Kats defeated Incarnate Word 78-72 in San Antonio Saturday night.
Sam Houston will be attempting to open Southland Conference play with back-to-back victory for only the sixth time in the Bearkats' 29 years in the league. The Sam men started Southland action 2-0 in 1990, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2015. In both 2003 and 2010 the Kats went on to win the regular season championship.
BEARKATS VERSUS DEMONS ALL-TIME SERIES
Sam Houston and Northwestern State have met on the hardwood 60 times with each team winning 30 games. The Kats own a three-game streak versus the Demons, winning 107-104 in double overtime in Natchitoches and 67-64 in Huntsville in 2014 and 75-64 in Huntsville last year.
TWO OF SOUTHLAND'S TOP PROGRAMS BATTLE
Sam Houston and Northwestern State both have ranked among the Southland's top men's basketball programs for more than a decade. The Bearkats have reached in the championship final of the past two Southland Conference post-season tournaments. Northwestern State has won 59 games in the last three years. Both programs have made two national postseason tournament appearances in that time span including an NCAA Tournament appearance by the Demons in 2013.
But both squads have lost star senior point guards due to injury 2015-16. Both the Demons' NBA Draft prospect Jalan West and three-year starter and preseason All-Southland Paul Baxter for Sam Houston have been lost for the year.
BEARKATS SOUTHLAND OPENING VICTORY SATURDAY
Dakarai Henderson scored 23 points and red-shirt freshman Josh Delaney hit 5 of 8 from beyond the arc to scored 19 points to lead Sam Houston to a 78-72 victory at Incarnate Word. Four of Delaney's five treys came in the second half to help the Bearkats hold off Cardinal rallies in a game that saw 13 lead changes.
HEAD COACH JASON HOOTEN ON MONDAY'S MATCH-UP
“Prather Coliseum is always a tough place to play. You've got a Hall of Fame coach and one of the league's outstanding programs over the years. We had a great effort Saturday to win on the road at Incarnate Word and now we face another tough game in Natchitoches.”
CHALLENGING NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Road games at SMU, California, Texas Tech, UTEP and North Texas and a tournament match-up with UC-Irvine made up the Bearkats' challenging non-conference schedule. Sam Houston completed pre-Southland play with a 5-8 record.
Sam Houston defeated Bethune-Cookman 71-46 in Las Vegas, picked up a road victory at LIU-Brooklyn 75-69 and took Southern Illinois to overtime at home in other action against NCAA Division I opponents.
THREE 2015 RESERVES NOW IN STARTING ROLES
Aurimas Majauskas, a 6-8 junior post player who was the back-up to Southland “Defensive Player of the Year” Michael Holyfield last season; Dakarai Henderson, a 6-2 junior guard who was the first player off the bench in 2015 and Jamal Williams, a 6-4 sophomore guard who also was a key reserve, all have stepped into starting roles this season. Majauskas and Williams has started every game and Henderson has started all but one contest.
The trio has accounted for 36.6 of Sam Houston's 75.2 points per game this season. Majauskas leads the team with 14.3 points and Henderson adds 13.5 per game. The pair have each posted eight double-figure games. Williams has taken over as the Kats' point guard. He averages 9.2 points and leads the team with 45 assists.
HOT-SHOOTING FRESHMAN GUARD
Red-shirt freshman Josh Delaney has come off the bench to score 31 points and knock down nine three-point baskets in the Kats' last two games. Delaney scored 12 points at North Texas and 19 at Incarnate Word.
FASTEST TO 100 COACHING WINS AT SAM HOUSTON
The Bearkats' 71-46 win over Bethune-Cookman at the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic November 27 marked the 100th victory for Jason Hooten as the SHSU men's head coach. He is the sixth head coach in Sam Houston's 96 seasons of play to coach the Kats to 100 or more victories. Earning his 100th victory in the fifth game of his sixth season as head coach, Hooten stands as the fastest to 100 wins at Sam Houston. His record now stands at 103 victories and 75 losses.
BEST TWO-YEAR RECORD IN PROGRAM HISTORY
In 2013-14 and 2014-15, the Kats won 50 games – the most in consecutive seasons at Sam Houston, tying a mark of 50 wins set by the 1972 and 1973 Bearkat squads in the program's NAIA days. The Kats have finished as league regular season runner-up, reached the Southland tournament finals and played in the CollegeInsider.com post-season event in both 2014 and 2015.
SAM HOUSTON IN THE SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE
Sam Houston is averaging 74.3 points per game, the sixth highest mark in the league. The Bearkats rank No. 4 in scoring defense (72.2) and No. 5 in field goal percentage defense (.439). The Kats are the league's second-leading rebounding team with 39.6 boards per game. Aurimas Majauskas ranks 10th in Southland scoring (14..5) and Dakarai Henderson stands 15th (12.6). Torry Butler and Majauskas rank No. 4 and No. 15, respectively, in the league in rebounding with averages of 7.1 and 5.6. Jamal Williams stands ninth in Southland assists (3.6) and fourth in the league in assist/turnover ratio (2.4).
