Kats To Close Non-Conference vs Arkansas
12/21/2016 11:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game 13
Thursday, Dec. 22 • North Little Rock, Ark. • 7:00 p.m. CT • Verizon Arena (18,000)
Sam Houston State (9-3) at Arkansas (10-1)
Live Stats • @BearkatsMBB on Twitter
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Sam Houston State Bearkats will ride a five-game win streak into the final non-conference game of the season on Thursday when they battle Arkansas at Verizon Arena.
After starting off the season 4-3, the Kats have run their record to 9-3 with five straight wins in the month of December behind an offense that has scored 88.6 points per game during that stretch.
Due to the game being played in North Little Rock and not on Arkansas' home campus in Fayetteville, fans will only be able to follow via live stats or by following @BearkatsMBB on Twitter.
THE LAST TIME OUT
Aurimas Majauskas became the 24th Bearkat to reach 1,000 points for a career and Sam Houston State won its fifth straight game, 119-81, on Monday night at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
Majauskas entered the night needing 17 points to reach the plateau and finished with 18 points on the night as one of six Bearkats (9-3) in double figures. It was the most points by a Bearkats team since the 2005-06 season.
Dakarai Henderson and Majauskas led the way with 18 points apiece, but nearly all of the Kats got in on the scoring action with 12 players putting in at least one bucket. Phillip Jones Jr. finished with 13 points and seven boards in just 17 minutes off the bench, while Albert Almanza canned three triples on his way to 13 points of his own.
BEARKAT BYTES
- The 119 points scored by the Bearkats against Randall was the most points scored by a Bearkats team since putting up 121 against Concordia Lutheran in the 2005-06 season. The Kats have now cracked the century mark 10 times 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 four seasons.
- 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 and is a perfect 18-for-18 to start the season from the charity stripe.
- The Bearkats are making things happen on the defensive end, forcing 17.3 turnovers per game. That mark is only slightly behind Lamar in the Southland, and ranks as 23rd in the nation. Sam Houston has not lost a turnover battle this season, winning it in 10 of 12 games to date.
- Sam Houston checked in at No. 81 in the latest RPI rating released by the NCAA and is one of only two Southland Conference teams in the RPI top 100, trailing only Nicholls who checked in at No. 70.
- The Kats have only suffered three losses in their first 12 games of the season with those teams - Ohio, Georgia Tech, Baylor - combining for an 24-6 record between them to start the year.
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 Thursday vs Arkansas having won 77 games since the beginning of the 2013-14 campaign. The only teams with more wins in that span include SMU (89), Stephen F. Austin (83) 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.
GALBREATH GOES BACK-TO-BACK
Junior foroward Chris Galbreath Jr. claimed his second consecutive Southland Conference Player of the Week honor on Monday after averaging 14.0 points and 11.0 rebounds in wins over Sul Ross and North Texas. He is the first SLC player to win the honor multiple times, having also claimed it a week before after a 26-point effort in a win over Southern Illinois. He is averaging 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and shooting .571 from the floor over his last four games.
BALANCE BEAM
This season's version of the Bearkats features a deep and balanced roster with only two players - Dakarai Henderson (11.5 ppg) and Aurimas Majauskas (10.1 ppg) - averaging double figures in scoring, but has five averaging at least 9.0 ppg and nine 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 26.8 minutes per game, which is only 30th among all players in the Southland Conference.
BENCH MARK
Through 12 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 10 of 12 contests, the lone exception being at No. 2 Baylor and against North Texas. In all, Sam Houston's bench is outscoring its opponent's bench by a 33.8-23.8 margin.
MILLENIUMS
Senior Dakarai Henderson pumped in 14 points in the first half against Southern, reaching the 1,000-point milestone for his career. The senior is just the 23rd player in Bearkat history to reach the plateau and needs five points to pass Johnny Scheer and Ashton Mitchell for 19th on the all-time scoring list. He is also second all-time at Sam Houston with 201 for his career and needs just nine threes to pass Jeremy Burkhalter for that Bearkat record.
But Henderson is not the only Kat to reach the 1,000-point mark as teammate Aurimas Majauskas went for 18 points against Randall to give him 1,001 for his tenure. Meanwhile, Paul Baxter is nearing the mark as well and enters Thursday's game vs Arkansas with 947 career points.
KATS ENTER MID MAJOR TOP 25
Following its 76-70 win over North Texas, Sam Houston made its first appearance in CollegeInsider.com's Mid Major Top 25, checking in at No. 25. They are the only Southland Conference team to be ranked in the poll.
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 (5.0 apg) and 10th in steals (1.8 spg). The Kats are averaging 84.1 points per game since he was inserted into the starting lineup vs Southern.
