North Texas Next On Slate For Bearkats
12/16/2016 12:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Game 11
Monday, Dec. 17 • Huntsville, Texas • 6:30 p.m. CT • Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum (6,100)
Sam Houston State (7-3) vs North Texas (5-4)
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The Sam Houston State Bearkats will go for their fourth win in a row and put their perfect home record on the line on Saturday when they host North Texas at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
The Kats, coming off consecutive wins over LSU-Shreveport, Southern Illinois and Sul Ross, have picked up wins in each of their first five games of the season at Johnson Coliseum and are averaging 86.6 points per game under its home roof.
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THE SERIES
- Sam Houston and North Texas will be meeting for the 60th time on Saturday in a series that began during the 1925-26 season when the teams split two games in Denton. The Mean Green holds a 35-24 all-timed advantage over the Bearkats.
- The Bearkats' series with the Mean Green used to be a league series until UNT left the Southland Conference in 1996. North Texas owned the edge, 12-6, in those Southland Conference games.
- Sam Houston got 17 points from Aurimas Majauskas and Josh Delaney hit four three-point baskets in last year's matchup in Denton; however, it did not prove to be enough in a 69-64 Mean Green win. The Kats erased 11-point, and 8-point UNT leads in the first and second halves and led 58-56 with less than 6 minutes to play before UNT pulled out the win behind 27 points from Deckie Johnson.
THE LAST TIME OUT
Sam Houston State kicked off its three-game homestand on Tuesday evening, putting three players in double figures and cruising to a 78-57 win over Sul Ross at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
Torry Butler followed up his career-best 17 points on Saturday at Southern Illinois by hit all six of his shots from the field, scoring 12 of his team-best 13 points in the opening half to go with six rebounds. He was joined with 13 points by Dakarai Henderson who drained a trio of three-point buckets and hauled in five boards of his own.
The Bearkats hit seven of its 11 tries from beyond the arc, while more than half of the Lobos' 16 made field goals came from distance. In all, Sam Houston shot 56.1 percent from the floor compared to just 30.8 percent for Sul Ross
BEARKAT BYTES
- The win over Sul Ross is the fourth in its last five games for the Kats and marks the third time in the last four seasons Sam Houston has started off the year with seven wins in its first 10 contests.
- Senior guard Jovante' Spivey has been a good backcourt spark for the Kats, and has taken full advantage of his trips to the foul line. Spivey is a perfect 16-for-16 to start the season from the charity stripe, helping the Kats to a 72.4 free-throw percentage as a team.
- The Bearkats are making things happen on the defensive end, forcing 17.4 turnovers per game. That mark is only slightly behind Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland, and ranks as 17th in the nation. Sam Houston has not lost a turnover battle this season, winning it in 8 of 10 games to date.
- The Kats have only suffered three losses in their first 10 games of the season with those teams - Ohio, Georgia Tech, Baylor - combining for an 20-5 record between them to start the year.
GALBREATH NAMED SOUTHLAND PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Forward Chris Galbreath Jr. was named the Southland Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Monday, the first such honor for Galbreath and the first for a Bearkat this season.
After the Bearkats took a week off for final exams, Galbreath set the curve with 26 points in 27 minutes off the bench in Sam Houston's win at Southern Illinois on Saturday afternoon.
The junior from Chicago, playing in his home state, hit 10 of 15 shots from the floor and six of seven from the foul line in helping the preseason Southland favorites move to 6-3 on the season. Galbreath poured in in 16 points in the first half to propel the Kats to a 42-32 lead at the break. He added 10 more in the second half en route to the 79-73 victory.
AMONG THE LONE STAR ELITE
With 23 Division I basketball teams within Texas' borders, one does not have to look far within the Lone Star State to find quality teams. In the last 3+ seasons under Jason Hooten, the Bearkats have been one of those teams and enter Saturday vs North Texas having won 75 games since the beginning of the 2013-14 campaign. The only teams in Texas with more wins in that span include SMU (87), Stephen F. Austin (82) and Baylor (81).
BRINGING BACK THE BULK
Hooten's squad boasts one of the most experienced rosters in the country in 2016-17, returning all five of its starters and each of its top seven scorers. In fact, the Kats return 85.6 percent of its scoring from last year's 18-win team, an average of 64.2 points per game on the roster from a year ago.
SOUTHLAND FAVORITES
When the annual preseason polls came out from the Southland Conference, it was the Bearkats picked to claim the league crown by both the Southland SIDs and coaches. The Kats received six of 13 first-place votes in the coaches' poll and seven in the SID poll, coming just ahead of four-time defending league champion Stephen F. Austin.
BALANCE BEAM
This season's version of the Bearkats features a deep and balanced roster with only one player - Dakarai Henderson (10.7 ppg) - averaging double figures in scoring, but with five averaging at least 9.0 ppg and 10 with an average of at least 4.0 ppg. Hooten has kept a steady rotation of players in games with no player averaging more than Henderson's 26.7 minutes per game, which is only 32nd among all players in the Southland Conference.
BENCH MARK
Through 10 games, the Bearkat bench has been a major part of this season's early success with Sam's reserves outscoring the opponent's bench in nine of 10 contests, the lone exception being at No. Baylor. In all, Sam Houston's bench is outscoring its opponent's bench by a 34.4-24.8 margin.
MILLENIUMS
Senior Dakarai Henderson hit a pair of threes and got 10 of his 14 points in the first half against Southern, but it was his two foul shots with 7:05 to play in the second half that got him to the 1,000-point milestone for his career. The senior is just the 23rd player in Bearkat history to reach the plateau and needs four points to pass Al Adams for 21st on the all-time scoring list. He is also fourth all-time at Sam Houston with 193 for his career. He is just 17 shy of setting a Bearkat career record.
Henderson is likely to not be the last this season to reach the 1,000-point mark. Currently teammates Aurimas Majauskas and Paul Baxter are nearing the mark as well. Majauskas enters Wednesday's game vs Idaho with 975 career points while Baxter is at 927.
THE BUTLER DID IT
Torry Butler has been a bright spot early in the season for Sam Houston State, and goes into Saturday having gone for 10 or more boards three times this season, and already is halfway to his double-double total from last year when he led the Kats in rebounding in 15 of 32 games as a junior. He set a new career high with 17 points in Sam's win at Southern Illinois and followed that up with a 13-point outing against Sul Ross, making all six of his shots from the floor in just 20 minutes of action.
DEWEY MAKING AN IMPACT
John Dewey III has made an immediate impact on the Bearkats, on both ends of the court. The transfer guard has led Sam Houston in scoring and/or assists in more than of its games and he currently ranks third in the SLC in assists (4.8 apg) and 10th in steals (1.6 spg). The Kats are averaging 75.5 points per game since he was inserted into the starting lineup vs Southern.
REACHING THE CENTURY MARK
The 104 points scored by the Bearkats against LeTourneau was the ninth time Sam Houston has cracked the century mark under head coach Jason Hooten. Sam Houston did it twice last season and has had at least two 100-point outings each of the last three years entering 2016-17.
