KATY – The Sam Houston Bearkats were right there at the end, but the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks were able to hold them off, winning 56-45 in the title game of the Southland Tournament at the Merrell Center.
 
With the win, SFA (25-2) advances to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2006 season.
 
Amber Leggett, who averaged 29.5 points per game in the Bearkats' (15-8) first two wins of the weekend, led the Kats with 14 points, but was just 6-for-15 from the field in a low-scoring game between teams that were the top two scoring teams in the Southland this year.
 
Leggett, along with Faith Cook, were each named to the all-tournament team at the conclusion of the event. Cook finished with 11 points and four assists while Madelyn Batista added eight points and 10 rebounds.
 
For SFA, Aiyana Johnson finished with 16 points and eight rebounds and was named the tournament's MVP despite going for just seven points and four rebounds in SFA's only other game in the tournament. Leggett finished the week averaging 23.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game while also shooting 61.4 percent from the floor.
 
The Kats had three players – Cook, Leggett and Kaylee Jefferson – all play all 40 minutes of the game on a day that saw the Kats never trail by more than seven until the game's final minutes.
 
Sam Houston trailed by just four at the half, committing just five turnovers in the opening 20 minutes while forcing 10 by the Ladyjacks. The Kats came back out and took the lead, 30-28, on the strength of an 8-0 run early in the third quarter fueled by a pair of 3-point buckets from Cook and a layup by Batista.
 
But Sam Houston would go over five minutes without a field goal after that, not getting on the board until Leggett's first field goal of the half at the 1:23 mark made it a 35-32 game.
 
Still, the Kats managed to hang around, and after back-to-back buckets by Leggett found themselves down by just four, 46-42, with just over two minutes to play; however, SFA's Zya Nugent followed that up with a key 3-pointer from the left corner to put SFA up by seven and essentially seal the game.
 
The Kats finish the season with a 15-8 record, marking only the second time in the Division I era that Sam Houston has had three consecutive winning seasons to its credit.