No.3 Kats Clinched Second Straight SLC Title
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Natchitoches, Louisiana-Timothy Flanders, Brian Bell and Trey Diller combined to lead the offense and the Bearkat defense remained tough as well as Sam Houston State rolled to a 52-17 victory over Northwestern State Saturday.
The win gives Sam Houston State their second consecutive Southland Conference regular season football championship, a feat unequaled in the Bearkats’ 26 seasons in the league.
Sam Houston and Central Arkansas stand as co-champions, both with 6-1 league records.
The No. 3 ranked Bearkats upped their season record to 8-2.
Flanders produced the 22nd 100-yard rushing performance of his career, carrying 17 times for 138 yards including scoring runs of 56 and 4 yards.
Bell completed 17 of 23 passes for 239 yards and three touchdowns.
Diller caught seven of those passes for 119 yards and a score.
The Kat defense allowed Northwestern State only 141 total yards and 42 on the ground.
The Sam Houston offense rolled up 509 total yards (253 rushing and 256 passing).
The championship marks Sam Houston’s fifth Southland football title.
The Bearkats also won championships in 1991, 2001, 2004 and 2011.
After being forced to punt on their first two possessions, the Bearkats got rolling on a seven play 93-yard drive with Flanders scoring on a 56-run through the right side at the 3:07 mark in the first quarter.
The run marked the ninth time in his career Flanders has scored a touchdown of more than 50 yards.
Ed Eagan returned the kickoff 82 yards to tie the game 7-7 ten seconds later.
Miguel Antonio gave the Bearkats a 10-7 lead with just 21 seconds into the second quarter after a 10-play 55-yard drive.
Sam Houston reached the five-yard line on the drive but was moved back to the 20-yard line by a personal foul penalty.
A quarterback sack by Robert Shaw forced Northwestern State to punt from its end zone against the wind on the next Demon possession.
On the first play after the punt, Bell found tight end T. J. Jones open over the middle for a 50-yard touchdown as SHSU went up 17-7 with 12:08 to play in the half.
The Bearkat defense came up with the next score.
J. T. Cleveland forced a fumble that pinned the Demons on their own one.
On third down, Bookie Sneed intercepted a Brad Henderson pass and returned the pick 11 yards for a touchdown and a 24-7 lead 7:54 before intermission.
The interception was Sneed’s fourth of the year and his second for a touchdown.
The junior cornerback now has eight career interceptions, tying him for eighth in the all-time SHSU interception standings.
Bell threw 38-yards to Trey Dillar and 10-yards to Chance Nelson for a pair of touchdowns in the final 2:57 of the first half.
The pass to Diller completed a seven play 68-yard drive and Nelson’s catch ended a 10 play 61-yard march.
John Shaughnessy kicked a 27-yard field goal on the last play to make the score at intermission 38-10.
Sam Houston opened the second half with a 14-play 80-yard scoring drive capped off by a four-yard touchdown run by Flanders.
The Bearkats finish their regular season schedule next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in College Station against Texas A&M.
Bearkat Basketball Narrowly Lost To Razorbacks
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Fayetteville, Ark. – Sam Houston head coach has said all fall that the 2012-13 edition of the Bearkat men’s basketball team will be much better shooters.
The young Kat squad proved their coach right as they threw a scare into Arkansas, falling by only five points 73-68 Friday night in both team’s season opener.
Darius Gatson led Sam Houston with 20 points, hitting four of six three-point attempts.
James Thomas added 14 points and Demarcus Gatlin scored 10.
Coty Clark led the Hogs with 20 points. Twenty four of Arkansas’ points came at the free throw line.
“With a lineup that includes seven young guys who were playing their first NCAA Division I game against a team like Arkansas that presses for 40 minutes and an atmosphere like this one in Fayetteville, I was really happy with the way these guys refused to fold under pressure,” Hooten said.
“We’re just working on becoming a better team right now. We’d only worked on their press the last three days.”
Sam Houston started strong, jumping out to an 8-4 lead with a layup by Gatson at the 16:52 mark.
The Razorbacks roared back to tie the contest at 14-14.
James Thomas gave the Bearkats their last lead, 16-14, with a layup with 12:01 to play.
Arkansas went on a 12-2 run to build their largest lead of the first half, 29-18, with 6:40 remaining.
A trio of three-point baskets, the third by Nathaniel Mason, brought Sam Houston back within four 33-29 with 1:07 remaining before intermission.
The Hogs led 37-29 at halftime.
The Bearkats kept the contest close throughout the second period.
Gatson cut the lead to four 42-38 with 16:19 to play and a three-pointer by Marquel McKinney brought SHSU within three 46-43 at the 13:18 mark.
Jeremy McKay’s trey with 51 seconds to play made it a four-point game, but the Hogs held on for the victory.
Sam Houston State will play their 2012-13 home opener Tuesday at Johnson Coliseum against Hardin-Simmons.
Bearkat Volleyball Team Defeats Cowgirls In Straight Sets
by Cheval John
The Sam Houston State Bearkat volleyball team were not phased after their 13-game win streak was snapped by Northwestern State Demons.
Instead, they played as a unit and in the process defeated the McNeese State Cowgirls in straight sets 25-15, 25-11, 25-19.
“Our mentality coming in was to play every team like it’s the same team no matter who they are or where they’re ranked,” outside hitter Devene Wells-Gibson said.
“We watched film on them, we critique them to know their tendencies and we came out thinking like it was the first game we ever played.”
Wells-Gibson led the charge for the Kats as she totaled 16 kills, 7 digs and a block.
The Kats (14-3 Southland Conference play, 19-10 overall) came out on fire in the first set as they scored the first seven out of ten points in the first set to take a 7-3 lead.
After a service error that cut the lead to 7-4, SHSU exploded for six straight points on a pair of kills by outside hitter Kendall Cleveland and four Cowgirls errors to increase their lead to 13-4.
They went on to win the first set 25-15.
The Bearkats continued their dominance as they opened the second set scoring the first six out of eight points to lead it 6-2 and went on to win it 25-11.
The third set was different as both teams fought tooth and nail for every point.
The Cowgirls (1-16 Southland Conference play, 7-24 overall) led 7-5 before the Bearkats scored five straight points to take a 10-7 lead courtesy of four Cowgirls errors and a service ace by libero Camille Alfaro.
McNeese State didn’t let up as they scored seven of nine points to regain the lead at 14-12.
Cleveland’s two straight kills tied it up at 14 and Rachel Cagnina’s kill helped the Cowgirls regain a 15-14 lead.
But the Bearkats responded with four straight points of their own to take an 18-15 lead on a Cowgirl error, a kill by Wells-Gibson, a service ace by Kaylee Hawkins and a Cleveland/Haley Neisler block.
They never looked back as they scored the next eight out of twelve points to sealed the game.
Cleveland finished the game with 10 kills while Hawkins totaled 9 kills, 12 digs and two assists.
Setter Tayler Gray had 40 assists, 6 digs, 2 aces and a block.
Cagnina led the Cowgirls with 6 kills.
The win kept the Bearkats tied with Central Arkansas in the SLC .
With one more game to go against Lamar on Saturday, they are determined to finish on a high note and claim a share of the SLC title.
For head coach Brenda Gray, she is just taking it one game at a time.
“What we have to do is take care of our business here. … We can’t get caught up in that” Gray said.
Longhorn Legend Passes Away At 88
by Cheval John
Darrell K. Royal has been a person synonemous with the University of Texas Longhorns football for a long time.
Royal, who led the Longhorns to the National Championship in 1963, 1969 and 1970, passed away today at the age of 88.
He coached the Longhorns from 1957 to 1976. with a record of 167-47-5, the most in school history.
Under his guidance, they won 11 Southwest Conference titles, 10 Cotton Bowls and 3 national championships.
His record of 167-47-5 at Texas is the most in school history.
Prior to Texas, he coached at Mississippi State and the University of Washington.
“Today is a very sad day. I lost a wonderful friend, a mentor, a confidant and my hero. College football lost maybe its best ever and the world lost a great man,” current Texas coach Mack Brown said Wednesday to the Associated Press.
“His counsel and friendship meant a lot to me before I came to Texas, but it’s been my guiding light for my 15 years here.”
Royal was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
In 1996, UT-Austin renamed Memorial Stadium as the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to honor the man that turned the Longhorns into a national power.
The Longhorns will pay tribute to Royal on Saturday when they play host to Iowa State by wearing the DKR sticker on their jersey.