Jalin Barnes came off the bench to score 19 points including 5-of-5 from three point range to lead Sam Houston to a 105-75 Southland Conference men's basketball victory over Central Arkansas Saturday at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum in Huntsville.
Three other Bearkats scored in double figures with Dakarai Henderson hitting 18, Jamal Williams 14 and Aurimoas Majauskas 13. Jordan Howard totaled 19 for Central Arkansas.
The Bearkats remained in the hunt for one of the top four seeds at the Southland Conference Tournament in Katy in March with their third consecutive victory. The Kats are now 15-12 for the year and 10-4 in Southland play. UCA drops to 6-17 on the year and 5-8 in league action.
“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten said. “We felt like we could get a lot of open shots from outside against their zone but I liked the way we were patient and worked the ball inside for some good shots. That set up more open shots from long range.”
Sam Houston hit 48.5 percent from beyond the arc (16-of-33), two short of the school record 18 threes the Bearkats hit in Rupp Arena against Kentucky in 2009.
“Normally we don't want to shoot that many threes, but when we got in the groove that basket looked awfully big,” Hooten said. “Another key was us scoring 26 points off their turnovers and them not scoring anything on ours. I'm not sure that's ever happened to me as a coach.”
Sam Houston only committed five turnovers in the contest. The Kats defense caused the Bears 15 miscues.
Central Arkansas held a three-point lead two-and-a-half minutes into the game, 9-6, after a jumper by Jordan Howard. After the game's fourth tie at 13-13 with 15:10 in the first half, Sam Houston broke away with a 7-0 run to go up 20-13 on a lay-up by Jamal Williams at the 12:58 mark.
The Bearkats' largest lead in the first half was 17 with 3:06 remaining as two free throws by Henderson made the score 45-28.
Sam Houston took a 48-33 advantage into the locker room at intermission. The Kats outscored UCA 57-42 in the second half, building a 33-point advantage with 4:41 left in the game.
The Bearkats' next game is against A&M-Corpus Christi, the league's second place team, Saturday, Feb. 27 in Huntsville.
