SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Corey Avery rushed for 212 yards and four touchdowns and the No. 2 Sam Houston State Bearkats held off Incarnate Word, 63-48, on Saturday night at Benson Stadium.

UIW (1-5, 1-3 SLC) tied things up at 21-21 late in the second quarter, but the Bearkats (5-0, 4-0 SLC) scored on their next three possessions and eventually opened things up with a 21-point third quarter.

Jeremiah Briscoe connected with three different receivers for four scores, finishing with 203 yards on 14-for-20 passing on the night without an interception. In all the Bearkats racked up 508 yards of offense on the night, including a season-high 305 yards on the ground.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Briscoe found Davion Davis for touchdowns of 12 and 80 yards in an explosive first quarter for the Kats as Sam Houston held a 21-7 lead less than 12 minutes into the game; however, after racking up 201 yards on just 10 plays in the opening period, the Kats were held to just 56 yards in the second quarter as the Cardinals stormed back.

UIW converted on two Bearkat turnovers in the second quarter and put together scoring drives of 83 and 73 yards, knotting things back up at 21-21 on a two-yard sneak by quarterback Trent Brittain with 3:47 left in the half.  

But from there the Kats amped it up offensively, scoring twice in the final three minutes of the half to take a 35-21 lead despite holding the ball less for less than seven minutes in the first half.

The teams traded scores on the first four possessions of the third quarter with Sam Houston getting a pair of one-yard scores from Avery. The Kats defense then stepped up and forced a Cardinal punt, and Avery broke off a 56-yard touchdown run on the final play of the quarter to give Sam Houston the breathing room it was looking for at 56-35.

Tyler Scott added a five-yard touchdown reception early in the fourth quarter for the final Bearkat score of the night

TURNING POINT
After the Cardinals tied things up at 21-21 with 5:24 to play in the first half, the Kats took advantage of a pair of UIW penalties on the ensuing kickoff and cashed in on a short field with a four-yard touchdown from Remus Butler to re-take the lead at 28-21. Torian Williams then recovered a UIW fumble on the next possession to set things up for Briscoe to find Nathan Stewart for a 12-yard score that gave SHSU a 14-point advantage going into the locker room.  

KEY STAT
The Bearkats only ran 53 plays, 35 less than the Cardinals, and held the ball for just 18:54 of the game; however, the offense averaged 9.6 yards per play. SHSU also finished with 210 kick return yards, including 164 from return man Jaylen Harris.  

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME
Corey Avery's 212 yards on the ground was a career high, as were his four scores. He averaged 12.5 yards per rush with two of his scoring bursts coming from longer than 50 yards.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME
Justin Johnson finished with a team-best 17 tackles for the game, including six solo and one tackle for a loss.

RECORD WATCH
Corey Avery rushed for 212 yards on the night, including 107 on just eight carries in the opening half. That total moved him up two more spots into 13^th all-time at SHSU with 1,956 yards on the ground for his career. Meanwhile, Harris' 164 kickoff return yards ranks as the third most in a single game in Bearkat history.

UP NEXT
Sam Houston returns to Bowers Stadium for just the second time this season next Saturday when it takes on Abilene Christian. The homecoming game against the Wildcats is set for a 3 p.m. kickoff.

QUOTABLES
K.C. Keeler on the game as a whole
“It started off too easy, and when it starts off too easy I think you start thinking about how many yards you can put up, how many points you can put up, how many guys are going to play. Things like that. And I think we just showed a little immaturity. We didn't have that laser focus that we needed to have for a full 60 minutes. And I think we are a little tired. I've never been somewhere where we had to go on the road for four straight weeks, but that's just how it so happens that our schedule worked.

It will be good to get home this weekend. I saw some really good things offensively, but defensively we were trying to be careful with Adrian (Contreras) and I think it limited some of the things we were trying to do because he didn't go through a full week of practice. All in all I think we played a team that responded when we knocked them down. If their quarterback continues to play efficiently, I think they'll win a lot of ballgames.”

Keeler on what UIW did well
“They did a really good job of going toe-to-toe and have a lot of big bodies up front. They had the play-action pass going with max protection and weren't letting our pass rushers get to them. We have to do a better job in the secondary of understanding the route combinations we are going to see out of certain formations. I thought they did a pretty good job of throwing the ball and they made some good plays.”

Keeler on Corey Avery's performance
Corey still isn't 100 percent. We sat him out that HBU game and I don't think he wanted to come out again. He battled through some things with his ankle, and even got it re-taped. We were down a couple of running backs and I think he knew that and stepped up and played a great ballgame for us. It's a great combination when you see Jeremiah doing what he is doing and Corey is one of the best backs in the country, even on one and a half legs.

Corey Avery on his performance
Coach just did a great job of calling plays and putting me in great positions and I just did what they asked me to do. The offensive line played one of the best games they have played this year and you feel like you can do anything when you have holes that big to run through.