HUNTSVILLE — Conference USA champions sounds good. Outright champs sound even better.
Sam Houston left no doubt who the best team in the CUSA regular season was with an 81-73 victory over Jacksonville State on Saturday at Johnson Coliseum. The Bearkats will head to Huntsville, Alabama next week as the top seed in the CUSA Tournament.
Souleymane Doumbia scored a career high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help Sam Houston (20-11, 13-3 CUSA) win the league in the team's first season as a member under rookie head coach
Chris Mudge.
Lamar Wilkerson added 15 points,
Cameron Huefner 12 and
Damon Nicholas Jr. 10.
With the Kats leading 39-34 at halftime, Jax State came back to tie it at 43 with a hot start out of the locker room. Huefner didn't let that stand for long and drilled a 3 on the other end to push the lead to three.
The Bearkats began to pull away midway through the half after back-to-back 3s by the Gamecocks tied the match again at 54.
Jaden Ray hit a floater in the lane, then Doumbia scored four straight to push the lead to 62-55.
Wilkerson scored on a layup as Sam Houston took a nine-point lead. Doumbia capped a 10-0 run with a pair of free throws as the writing on the wall started showing.
Jax State got as close as four down the stretch, but never really threatened to steal the game from Sam Houston as the Kats closed the Gamecocks out.
The first half was all offense as the Bearkats shot a blistering 52 percent from the floor while Jax State also put up some impressive stats, hitting 43 percent of its shots.
The two teams trade shots for the most part as Sam Houston grabbed a four-point lead when Ray scored on a layup to make it 19-15 midway through the period. The Gamecocks came back to cut the lead to one a few minutes later.
Barnes knocked down a 3 to give the Kats a little cushion at 25-21 only to see Jax State answer with a 3 on the other end. Sam Houston got two baskets in the paint by Doumbia and appeared like it would head into the break on top by seven, but again the Gamecocks made another 3 to cut it to 39-35.
NOTES
• Sam Houston will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time since moving up to the Division I level.
•
Souleymane Doumbia saved his best for his last home game. He scored a season high 22 points which is eight more than his previous best.
• This is the fifth outright regular season conference championships for the Bearkats. Sam Houston won the Southland Conference in 1999-20, 2002-03, 2009-10 and 2018-19.
