Bearkat’s WBB and MBB Tournament Bound
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
With two weeks left in the regular season, both the Sam Houston men and women’s basketball teams have already clinched berths in the 2013 Southland Conference Tournament.
The 33rd annual Southland Tournament will be held Wednesday, March 13 through Saturday, March 16 at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy.
The Southland Conference’s NCAA Championships automatic berth is the prize for the tournament winner.
Sam Houston State’s men’s team won the tournament and advanced to the NCAA regional in both 2003 and 2010.
The Bearkat men’s team will be making its 11th consecutive tournament appearance.
The Sam Houston women are headed to Katy for the fourth year in a row.
The tournament will feature a new format with lower seeded teams dueling in the first round and the top four seeds earning byes.
The tournament schedule shapes up like this:
Wednesday, March 13
Women’s Game #1 – No. 5 seed vs. No. 8 seed – 11 a.m.
Women’s Game #2 – No. 6 seed vs. No. 7 seed – 1:30 p.m.
Men’s Game #1 – No. 5 seed vs. No. 8 seed – 5 p.m.
Men’s Game #2 – No. 6 seed vs. No. 7 seed – 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 14
Women’s Game #3 – No. 4 seed vs. Game 1 winner – 11 a.m.
Women’s Game #4 – No. 3 seed vs. Game 2 winner – 1:30 p.m.
Men’s Game #3 – No. 4 seed vs. Game 1 winner – 5 p.m.
Men’s Game #4 – No. 3 seed vs. Game 2 winner – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 15
Women’s Semifinal #1 – No. 1 seed vs. Game 3 winner – 11 a.m.
Women’s Semifinal #2 – No. 2 seed vs. Game 4 winner – 1:30 p.m.
Men’s Semifinal #1 – No. 1 seed vs. Game 3 winner – 5 p.m.
Men’s Semifinal #2 – No. 2 seed vs. Game 4 winner – 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 16
Women’s Championship Game – 1 p.m.
Men’s Championship Game – 7:30 p.m.
The Sam Houston women’s basketball team can assure itself of at least a tie for the Southland regular season title by winning its final four games.
Last year’s Bearkat squad earned the women’s highest tournament ranking ever as the No. 3 seed.
The No. 1 or 2 seeds would put the Kats automatically in the semifinals.
Sam Houston has four more Southland doubleheaders left on the schedule.
The Bearkats will play their final two games at home at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum Thursday, Feb. 28 vs. Nicholls State and Saturday, March 2 against Southeastern Louisiana.
The teams will finish on the road at Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, March 7 and at Northwestern State on Saturday, March 9.
Tournament seedings will be announced Sunday, March 10.
Directions to the Merrell Center, parking information, brackets and tie-breaker procedures for the tournament are available on the Southland Conference Tournament web site.
For more information call the Sam Houston State ticket office at (936) 294-1729.
UH “Walks” Off With 6-3 Win Over Bearkats
By Cheval John
The Bearkats’ home opener against the Houston Cougars didn’t go exactly as planned on Tuesday night at Don Sanders Stadium.
A combination of bad pitching and errors caused the Bearkats to lose to the Cougars 6-3.
Reliever David Rumsey threw a base-loaded walk to Kyle Survance that started led to a three-run ninth inning for the Cougars.
Michael Burchett, who went down with the loss, issued back-to-back walks to Justin Montemayor and pinch hitter Casey Grayson to load the bases with one out in the top of the ninth.
“I think they were some timidness and I don’t know why” coach David Pierce said. “I really encourage them to go for it.”
Both teams combined for six errors in the game.
The first one occurred in the bottom of the first inning when Colt Atwood hit a ground ball that went under the glove of Cougar’s third baseman Kyle Kirk.
Atwood would later score the Bearkats’ (1-3) first run of the night thanks to an error by Cougars’ starting pitcher Aaron Garza that made it 1-0.
Kirk made up for the error as he ripped an RBI single to right field to tie it up at 1.
Hayden Simerly lauched a first pitch homerun to right field to put the Kats up 2-1.
The Cougars (3-1) tied it at 2 in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Davis.
Luke Plucheck’s sacrifice fly to center field made it 3-2.
Though the Bearkats were able to get out of jams, the errors eventually caught up to them
Landon Appling led off the seventh on a two-base throwing error by Carter Burgess.
He reached third on a single by Frankie Ratliff. Barker was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs
That allowed Montemayor’s sacrifice fly to tied the game at 3.
Coach Pierce feels that his team will bounce back from this loss.
“They going to come out of it, but they got to work hard to come out of it,” Pierce said.
The Bearkats play University of Louisiana-Monroe this weekend at home.
Bearkats End Tournament On High Note
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Hattiesburg, Miss. – The Sam Houston softball team ended action in the Southern Mississippi Classic with a split Sunday.
Sam Houston lost to Jacksonville State 6-5 in Sunday’s morning game, then bounced back to defeat host Southern Mississippi 3-0 in the afternoon contest.
The Bearkats went 3-2 in the tournament to up their 2013 season record to 5-6.
Sam Houston built a 5-0 lead in the Jacksonville State game after Cecelia Castillo’s two-run homer in the top of the third inning.
But JSU came back to put solo runs on the board in the fourth and fifth and scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to prevent a third consecutive extra inning affair with the Bearkats.
Castillo led Sam Houston at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance.
Jessica Slater and Alyssa Coggins also provided RBIs.
Lancaster allowed only two hits in second game, facing 25 batters in a complete game shutout.
Castillo and her sister Tiffany each went 2-for-3 in the contest. Hilary Adams and Ashley Isbell each had RBIs.
Pitcher Shelby Lancaster, Coggins, Castillo and outfielder Tori Benavidez were selected to the all-tournament team.
The Sam Houston softball team returns to action next weekend in San Marcos where they will participate in the Texas State Invitational.
Bearkat MBB Rebounds With Big Win Over UCA
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
James Thomas scored 26 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead Sam Houston State to an 80-75 Southland Conference men’s basketball victory over Central Arkansas Saturday evening.
The Bearkats held a 13- point lead early in the second half, but saw it evaporate after a 19-5 UCA Bears run to put Central Arkansas up 50-49 with 9:52 to play.
Sam Houston bounced back, taking a 58-57 lead on a jumper by Thomas with 4:50 to play and not allowing a UCA field goal for the next three-and-a-half minutes.
“James Thomas is a hard worker with a big heart and a motor that never stops,” head coach Jason Hooten said. “He made some big plays for us tonight.”
Will Bond added 15 points including three treys while Michael Holyfield pulled down nine rebounds.
“Will is developing into a shot maker and Michael is beginning to come into his own as a post player,” Hooten said. “Those last two minutes when UCA made one last run at us were the longest two minutes I’ve seen in a long time. But this was a good win for us.”
Robert Crawford scored 21 points and LaQuentin Miles added 19.
UCA went 0-for-18 from three point range before hitting three in the final minute and a half to cut Sam Houston’s 11-point lead to game-ending five.
Sam Houston now stands 13-11 for the year and 6-6 in Southland play.
The Bears are 9-14 for the season and 4-9 in league action.
The first 15 minutes of the game featured six ties and four lead changes.
UCA led by one, 23-22 with 5:12 to go in the period when the Kats started a 13-4 run to go into the locker room at intermission with a 35-27 lead.
Sam Houston led by 13, 44-31 on a three-pointer by Marquel McKinney two minutes and 22 seconds into the second half.
But the Kats went cold, hitting only two of their next 12 shots as the UCA Bears took the lead 51-50 after a 19-5 run.
Never behind by more than a field goal in the second period, Sam Houston rallied to take a 58-57 lead on a Thomas lay-up with 4:50 to play.
The Kat defense held the Bears without a field goal for the next three-and-a-half minutes during a 17-3 run to put SHSU up 72-60 on a pair of free throws by Thomas with 1:51 to play.
Sam Houston made six of eight free throws in the final minute and a half to hold off a final charge by the Bears.
The Bearkats play host to Southland Conference leader Stephen F. Austin Wednesday night at 7:45 p.m. at
Bearkats’ Woes Continues After Loss To Central Arkansas
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
The Bearkats are currently on a three-game losing streak after the 71-51 loss to Central Arkansas earlier today in Conway, Arkansas.
The loss dropped the Bearkats to 13-12 for the year and 9-4 in Southland play.
Central Arkansas, one of the preseason league favorites but were in a tailspin the past two weeks, ended a five-game losing streak.
The Bears now stand 14-11 for the year and 7-7 in the Southland.
Courtney Duever led Central Arkansas with 23 points while Megan Herbert added 19.
Nyha Carter led Sam Houston with 14 points. Chanice Smith and Britni Martin added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Sam Houston held an early 9-6 lead after a Britni Martin three-pointer four minutes into the game.
With the contest tied 10-10 at 14:56, the Bears went on a 15-2 run to go up 25-12 on a Britney Gowan basket with 10:18 left in the half.
After a 9-2 run, the Bearkats cut the margin back to six at 27-21 on another Martin three-pointer at 5:12.
But Central Arkansas out-scored the Kats 10-2 to go into the locker room up 37-23 at intermission.
UCA out-shot the Bearkats 42.4 percent to 32.1 from the field as Sam Houston also went 1-of-9 from the free throw line in the first 20 minutes.
Martin opened the second half with her third three-point basket to cut the margin to 37-26, but that was as close as Sam Houston would come the rest of the day.
Central Arkansas went on a 21-9 run to lead at 58-35, with 9:07 to play.
The Bears led by as many as 25 points late in the final three minutes.
UCA out-scored SHSU 34-28 in the second period.
Sam Houston ended the game shooting 35.1 percent from the field (20-of-57) and 4-of-15 (26.7 percent) from the foul line.
The Bearkats return to Huntsville to take on Stephen F. Austin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.