Bearkat Women’s Basketball Falls To South Alabama
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Mobile, Ala. – Senior forward Sequeena Thomas produced her 37th career game with double figure points and rebounds in a 71-61 loss to South Alabama Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.
Thomas led Sam Houston with 14 points and 10 rebounds. The Bearkats dropped to 2-5 for the season with the loss.
Camille Reynolds scored 14 points to lead South Alabama which now stands 7-3 for the year.
Thomas was one of four Bearkats in double figures. Jasmine Johnson scored 12 points, Britni Martin added 11 and Chanice Smith scored 10.
Sam Houston led 33-30 at halftime but South Alabama rallied to outscore the Kats 41-28 in the second period. The Bearkats shot 36 percent from the field, going 23-of-64, but their three point game was off as SHSU hit only 3-of-17 from beyond the arc.
The Bearkat women will take a break for finals this week before returning to action Sunday, Dec. 16 with a road contest at TCU in Fort Worth.
Bearkats Hit The Road Again To Face #2 Seeded Eastern Washington
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Sam Houston State will face Eastern Washington at 3 p.m. (Central time) Saturday, Dec. 15, at Roos Field in Cheney, Washington, in the NCAA Division I Football Championships semifinals.
The game will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
Eagles quarterback Kyle Padron passed for 358 yards and six touchdowns to lead Eastern Washington to a 51-35 victory over Illinois State Saturday evening in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Sam Houston defeated Montana State 34-16 Friday night in Bozeman to earn its semifinal berth.
Eastern Washington stood No. 4 in the final regular season FCS rankings and is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Division I Football Championships.
The game marks Sam Houston’s third appearance in the semifinals and the second year in a row the Bearkats have reached the Championships final four.
Ranked No. 5 in the final regular season rankings and unseeded in the playoffs, Sam Houston defeated Cal Poly 18-16 in Huntsville in the second round. Last year, Sam Houston punched its ticket for the NCAA Division I championship finals at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco with a 31-28 victory over Montana in the semifinals in Huntsville.
Eastern Washington and Sam Houston State’s only previous football meeting came in the NCAA quarterfinals in 2004, a contest voted by Bearkat football fans as SHSU’s “Game of the Decade” in a poll by www.gobearkats.com in 2009.
Down 20 points with 14 minutes to play on Dec. 4, 2004, in Cheney, quarterback Dustin Long led a Kat rally that ended with the winning touchdown and PAT on the final play of the game.
Jason Mathenia caught a school record 13 passes for 226 yards and Long threw for 478 yards and three touchdowns for a 35-34 SHSU victory over the No. 14 ranked Eagles.
Up 34-14 with 14:59 left, Eastern Washington had a chance to put the game away with a field goal with less than a minute to play.
Vincent Cartwright, a 6-5 receiver on his first special teams play of the season, blocked the potential field goal.
Long took the Bearkats 43 yards in 43 seconds, hitting Mathenia for gains of 12, 19 and 16 yards to move the ball to the EWU seven with two seconds to play. Mathenia caught the tying TD pass on a slant five yards deepin the end zone and Lance Garner kicked the winning PAT with no time left on the clock.
No.5 Bearkats Slaughters #3 Seeded Bobcats In FCS Quarterfinals
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Bozeman, Montana – Quarterback Brian Bell passed for 254 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 5- ranked Sam Houston State to a 34-16 victory over No. 2 Montana State Friday night.
The victory puts the Bearkats in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I Football Championships against the winner of Saturday’s Eastern Washington versus Illinois State contest in Cheney, Wash.
Sam Houston upped its season record to 10-3 while Montana State falls to 11-2.
The win marked the second year in a row the Bearkats have earned their semifinal berth with a victory over Montana State.
Last year, Sam Houston won 49-13 in the quarterfinals in Huntsville. SHSU went on to win in the semifinals and reach the national finals in Frisco.
In this year’s win over Montana State, the Bearkats again produced big plays on both offense and defense to advance.
Trey Diller caught a 56-yard touchdown pass from Bell and Chance Nelson had scoring receptions of 16 and 45 yards.
Bell completed 11 of 21 passes.
The 254 yards marked his third highest passing total as the Bearkats’ quarterback.
Nelson ended the game with five receptions for 89 yards. Diller had three catches for 104 yards.
Timothy Flanders led the Bearkat ground game, carrying 31 times for 106 yards.
The performance is Flanders’ 24th career100-yard rushing game and his ninth during the 2012 season.
Both marks are Sam Houston school records.
The Bearkats totaled 458 yards with 204 coming on the ground and 254 in the air.
The Sam Houston defense produced two turnovers and five quarterback sacks as the Kats limited Montana State to 72 yards rushing and 292 yards total offense.
Kenneth Jenkins picked off an interception and Andrew Weaver recovered a fumble.
Weaver and Darius Taylor each accounted for two sackes and Gary Lorance picked up the fifth.
Jenkins’ interception at the Montana State 49-yard line set up Miguel Antonio’s 24-yard field goal eight-and-a-half minutes into the game.
Bell hit Sincere for a 38-yard pass to the MSU four-yard line for the long strike in the six-play, 42-yard drive.
The Bobcats responded with a 10-play 62-yard drive for a 27-yard field goal by Rory Perez with 49 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
A 33-yard run by McGhee to the Bearkat 11-yard line set up the scoring play.
Sincere scored the game’s first touchdown with a 12-yard run as the Bearkats went up 10-3 with 12:29 left in the second quarter.
The tally completed an eight-play 79-yard drive.
Diller got the drive started with a 21-yard reception.
Flanders moved the ball to the Bobcat 24 with a 27-yard run.
Bell hit Chance Nelson for 11 to the MSU 12 on a key third down play.
After a three-and-out by Montana State, the Bearkats struck quickly to go up 17-3 as Bell found Trey Diller open over the middle for a 56-yard scoring pass with 9:41 remaining the half to complete a four-play 68-yard drive.
Sam Houston closed out the half with a 12-play 74-yard drive that took 4:31 as Antonio kicked a 17-yard field to allow the Bearkats to take a 20-3 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Montana State went 75 yards in 11 plays to open the second half with McGhee capping off with an 8-yard touchdown run.
After the extra point failed, the Bobcats had trimmed the lead to 20-9 with 9:10 to go in the third quarter.
Matt Foster pinned the Bobcats at their own three with a 35-yard punt.
Three plays later, Dax Swanson forced a fumble recovered by Weaver.
The Kats took one play to up their lead to 27-9 as Bell hit Nelson in the right corner of the end zone for a 16-yard pass with 2:49 to play in the third.
Bell found Nelson wide open again for a 45-yard touchdown to put Sam Houston ahead 34-9 with 12:18 left in the final quarter.
The scoring drive covered 74 yards in seven plays.
McGhee led the Bobcats on a six-play 91-yard drive, hitting Jon Ellis for a 12-yard touchdown with 5:25 remaining, cutting the SHSU margin to 34-16.
But it was a too little, too late as the Bearkats ran out the clock to seal the victory.
Taylor Earns A Spot On AFCA’s All-America Team
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
For the second year in a row, Sam Houston State safety Darnell Taylor has been named to the American Football Coaches Association All-America team, the AFCA announced today.
The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. What makes these teams so special is that they are the only ones chosen exclusively by the men who know the players the best – the coaches themselves. Also, only the top 22 players in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision play receive the honor.
Taylor is a repeat AFCA All-America performer. He also is a two-time Southland Conference “Defensive Player of the Year” honoree after winning first team All-Southland honors at safety.
Taylor leads the Bearkat defense in tackles this season with 91 including 63 solos stops and two quarterback sacks. Sam Houston ranks No. 3 in the nation in rush defense, No. 14 in scoring defense and No. 15 in total defense. The Bearkats led the Southland Conference in rushing, total defense and scoring defense.
The Mesquite senior broke the school record for most solo tackles in a career with a four-year total of 228. The old record of 215 was set by former NFL New York Jet veteran linebacker Stan Blinka who was an NAIA All-America selection for Sam Houston in 1975-78.
2012 AFCA Football Championship Subdivision Coaches All-America Team
Offense
WR Aaron Mellette 6-4 220 Sr. Elon
WR Erik Lora 5-10 181 Jr. Eastern Illinois
TE Kyle Juszczyk 6-3 245 Sr. Harvard
OL Earl Watford 6-4 295 Sr. James Madison
OL Terren Jones 6-7 320 Sr. Alabama St.
C Mike Sellers 6-0 290 Jr. Citadel
OL Randy Richards 6-4 310 Sr. Missouri St.
OL Will Post 6-6 310 Sr. Eastern Washington
QB DeNarius McGhee 6-0 210 Jr. Montana St.
RB Miguel Maysonet 5-10 210 Sr. Stony Brook
RB Zach Zenner 6-0 215 So. South Dakota St.
Defense
DL Caraun Reid 6-2 305 Sr. Princeton
DL Davis Tull 6-3 230 So. Tenn.-Chattanooga
DL Brandon Thurmond 6-2 260 Sr. Ark.-Pine Bluff
DL Kenneth Boatright 6-4 253 Sr. Southern Illinois
LB Matt Evans 6-0 228 Sr. New Hampshire
LB Robert McCabe 6-2 234 Sr. Georgetown
LB Jody Owens 6-0 223 Sr. Montana St.
DB AJ Cruz 5-9 190 Sr. Brown
DB Kejuan Riley 6-1 208 Sr. Alabama St.
DB Marcus Williams 5-11 194 Jr. North Dakota St.
DB Darnell Taylor 6-0 195 Sr. Sam Houston
Cooper-Dyke’s Tigers To Face Bearkats At Johnson Coliseum
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
One of the most decorated players in women’s college and pro basketball will be on the sidelines at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum Wednesday night when the Sam Houston women play host to Texas Southern in a 6:30 p.m. non-conference contest.
Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is in her first season as head coach of the TSU women’s basketball program.
The former college and WNBA pro star was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on August, 13, 2010.
Cooper-Dyke was an Olympic gold medalist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Most Valuable Player.
She was a four-year standout at Southern California, playing on back-to-back NCAA championships in 1983 and 1984.
She began her professional career overseas and played 10 seasons in Spain and Italy.
She returned to the United States in 1997 to play with the Houston Comets of the newly-formed WNBA.
She subsequently led the Comets to four consecutive WNBA championships and was named WNBA Finals MVP four times. Cooper-Dyke was voted the league’s MVP in 1997 and 1998 and was a four-time WNBA All-Star before retiring in 2000.
The young Tigers team brings a 1-6 record into Johnson Coliseum to face a Sam Houston team that stands 2-3.
The Bearkats are coming off a 78-50 victory over A&M-Commerce in the fifth annual “Pack-the-House” game that attracted a record crowd of more than 3800 fans last Friday.
Sam Houston’s senior trio of forwards Britni Martin and Sequeena Thomas and guard Chanice Smith each are averaging in double figures.
Martin leads the team with 16.6 points per game. Thomas boasts averages of 10.8 points and 12.2 rebounds.
Smith is pouring in 10.6 points per contest.
For the Tigers, 6-1 forward Gianne Fleming is scoring 10.4 points per game while 5-9 guard Brijan Turner sports a 10.2 scoring mean.
Following the Texas Southern game, the Sam Houston women will begin a five-game road swing that starts with a trip to South Alabama Saturday.
Wednesday features a special Christmas toy drive. Fans may bring a new, unwrapped toy for donation to the sixth annual M.A.S.H. (Make a Smile Happen) presented by 101.7 KSAM, 104.9 The Hits & Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant to support the Community Toy Drive.