Bearkats Loses To Sacred Heart 66-62
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Lynchburg, Va. – Defending Northeast Conference champion Sacred Heart outscored Sam Houston 9-2 in the final two-and-a-half minutes of action to pull out a 66-62 victory over the Bearkats Friday afternoon in preseason Women’s National Invitational (WNIT) consolation action.
Britni Martin scored 17 points and Chanice Smith added 14 to lead Sam Houston (0-2) as SHSU and SHU battled in a see-saw game with 11 lead changes.
Down 44-37 with 14 minutes to play, the Bearkats went on a 25-15 run to take a one-point lead, 62-61, on a lay-up by Martin with 1:16 remaining.
Sacred Heart did not allow the Kats to score again.
Morgan Merriman put her team ahead 63-62 with a layup with 1:02 left and Gabriel Washington fired in a three-pointer with 13 seconds to play to seal the victory.
Washington led Sacred Heart with 21 points.
Merriman scored 18 and Kiley Evans added 17.
Turnovers were key for Sam Houston.
Sacred Heart scored 17 points off SHSU’s 23 turnovers while the Bearkats could collect only 13 points from SHU’s 15 miscues.
Sam Houston won the rebounding battle with 48 boards to Sacred Heart’s 43.
Sequeena Thomas and Angela Beadle led both teams each with 10 rebounds.
SHSU point guard Jasmine Johnson totaled seven assists.
The Bearkats now will complete action in the WNIT with a second consolation game at 4 p.m. Saturday against the loser of the Liberty versus Grambling State contest.
Bearkat Volleyball Advances To Semifinals In SLC Tournament
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Led by Deveney Wells-Gibson with 16 kills, Sam Houston defeated Nicholls State to advance to the semifinals of the Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament.
The tournament is being hosted by Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas.
No. 2 Sam Houston defeated No. 6 Nicholls State 25-22 25-12 25-19.
The Kats will face the winner of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. Oral Roberts matchup.
The Southland Player of the Year, Wells-Gibson put up a dominant performance against the Colonels with her 27th double figure kill performance of the year.
Friday’s first set had 14 ties and 10 lead changes before the Kats finished it off 25-22.
In the second set, Sam Houston led from the beginning after jumping out to an early 5-0 lead.
Nicholls found itself within four at 11-7, but the Bearkats finished the set on a 14-5 run to win the second set, 25-12.
The third set was much like the first as both teams tied 14 teams and exchanged the lead five times, but Sam Houston finished the match on a 9-3 run to win the set 25-19 and finish off the sweep. Wells-Gibson led the charge with six kills in the final set.
Kaylee Hawkins, who was named honorable mention All-Southland, added 12 kills for the Bearkats.
Second team All-Southland member, Kim Black had six kills and four blocks for the Kats.
Tayler Gray, who was the second team All-Southland setter, had 37 assists.
For Nicholls, Jennifer Brandt and Sarah Terry each led the team with six kills.
Sam Houston advances to play the winner of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Oral Roberts, which begins at 1:30 p.m. today.
The semifinal match will commence at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Farris Center and will be streamed on the Southland Digital Network.
No.1 Hoosiers Defeats Bearkats 99-45
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Bloomington, Ind. – Christian Watford led all scorers with 24 points as No. 1 ranked Indiana defeated Sam Houston State 99-45 in the opening game for both teams in the Progressive Legends Classic Thursday night.
Watford was one of five players in double figures for the Hoosiers, scoring 11 points at the free throw line and hitting three treys. Will Sheehey added 18 points.
Sam Houston dropped to 1-2 for the year.
Paul Baxter led the Bearkats with nine points.
Marquel McKinney added eight.
Indiana never trailed, jumping out to a 16-2 lead and building to a 52-25 margin at halftime.
The Hoosiers went 30-of-53 from the field (56.7%) including nine three-pointers.
Sam Houston was limited to 16-of-53 (20%) shooting.
Indiana hit 30-of-44 at the line while Sam Houston made eight in the Bearkats 12 free throw attempts.
Nathaniel Mason scored seven points for Sam Houston and Michael Holyfield added five points.
Indiana out-boarded the Bearkats 45 to 23.
Sam Houston returns to Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum Monday night to begin the Progressive Legends Classic sub-regional tournament.
Southern Mississippi, Liberty and UC-Irvine will be the other three participants. Games are at 5 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. each night with the Kats playing in the nightcap daily.
Bearkat Volleyball Player, Coach Earns SLC’s Top Honors
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Deveney Wells-Gibson is the 2012 Southland Conference volleyball “Player of the Year,” Brenda Gray received league “Coach of the Year” honors and five Bearkats have been voted as All-Conference performers after leading Sam Houston to its first regular season volleyball championship since 1994.
Wells-Gibson was the top-scorer with 496 points for a Bearkat volleyball team that rolled to a 20-10 overall regular season mark and posted its highest Southland victory total ever with a 15-3 league mark.
The sophomore from San Antonio ranked No. 2 in kills (421) in the Southland and also was No. 10 in digs (339) and No. 12 in aces (34). She totaled double figure kills in 26 of the Bearkats’ 30 matches and was a two-time Southland Conference offensive player of the week selection.
Wells-Gibson is the first Bearkats to claim the honor since Julie Franzen won after SHSU’s 1993 conference championship season.
Gray, one of only 29 active head coaches in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball to post more than 500 career victories, to a season of 20 or more victories for the 12th time in her coaching career.
The 2012 Sam Houston team rolled up 13 consecutive victories at one point during the march to the conference title.
The 13-match winning streak is the longest since SHSU moved up to the Division I level in 1986.
In her 29th year of coaching this year’s honor marks her third “Coach of the Year” award in the Southland Conference.
After starting the season 3-7, the Bearkats went 17-3 the rest of the season including 12 three-set sweeps.
Her 595 career wins ranked third all-time among Southland Conference volleyball coaches.
Kendall Cleveland joined Wells-Gibson as a first team All-Southland Conference selection.
The senior from Houston totaled 389 points with 350 kills (3.53 per set) eight aces and 56 total blocks.
Tayler Gray and Kim Black, both Huntsville High School products, were second team selections.
As the Bearkats’ setter, Gray assisted on 1,162 of Sam Houston’s 1,413 kills this year and lead the squad with 383 digs.
Black was a force in the middle for the Bearkats, leading the Southland Conference in total blocks (140).
She stands No. 2 at Sam Houston in career blocks.
Kaylee Hawkins received honorable mention.
This marks the third time that she has made the All-Southland team (2009 first team, 2010 honorable mention).
The senior from Dickson is currently No. 3 in career digs (1,597).
Sam Houston is the No. 2 seed in the Southland Conference post-season tournament this weekend in Conway, Arkansas.
The Bearkats open play Friday at 11 a.m. against No. 7 seed Nicholls State.
The tournament semifinals will be played Saturday with the finals at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Bearkats Looking Forward To Face Hoosiers
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Sam Houston takes on the No. 1 men’s basketball team in the nation Thursday as they challenge the Indiana Hoosiers at 6 p.m. (Central time) in Bloomington, Ind.
Indiana (2-0) hosts Sam Houston (1-1) in the Bloomington Regional of the Progressive Legends Classic.
The game will be televised on the Big 10 network with Eric Collins and Jim Jackson calling the action.
KSAM 101.7 FM will carry the action live on radio and the internet in the Huntsville area.
Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Bearkats will welcome Southern Mississippi, UC-Irvine and Liberty to Huntsville for a Progressive Legends Classic sub-regional.
The tournament will consist of doubleheaders each evening starting at 5 p.m. with the Kats hosting the nightcap each day.
The Hoosiers are 4-0 all-time against Southland Conference opponents with the last meeting coming in November, 2010 when IU beat Northwestern State, 100-66.
For the first time since the 1979-80 preseason and just for the third time in school history (1975-76), the Indiana men’s basketball team started the season as the top ranked team in the country.
Indiana was also picked by the Big Ten media to win the conference championship.
The Hoosiers return the same starting lineup they finished their season with last year.
The group helped lead IU to a 27-9 record as they earned the program’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2002 and just the second berth in the round of 16 since 1995.
“It’s exciting to have the opportunity to play one of the most storied programs in NCAA men’s basketball,” Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten said.
“Right now, we’re just working on becoming a better basketball team. It’s going to be a great experience playing the Hoosiers.”
Indiana was ranked 16th by the Associated Press and 13th in the final USA Today/Coaches poll.
Using the formula on how the NCAA ranks a teams’ improvement from one year to the next, IU had a 15 1/2-game improvement in the standings from 2010-11, the seventh largest in NCAA history.
The Hoosiers also rank 11th with 1,692 wins all-time.
After finishing 140th in the country last season in scoring off the bench (18.9 ppg), the Hoosier depth could challenge for the nation’s best after scoring 77 points in the first two games.
Sophomore Remy Abell and freshman Jeremy Hollowell are averaging 13.0 points per game, while Will Sheehey is averaging 9.5.After two games, the Hoosiers have a 14.5 rebound per game edge on its opponents.
Last year at the same time, opponents had outrebounded IU by 1.5 per game.
The Hoosiers are averaging 32 free throw attempts per game. Last year, IU led all Big Six Conference teams making 18.2 charity tosses per game.
The Progressive Legends Classic features 12 teams from across the nation with top-ranked Indiana, No. 13 UCLA, Georgetown, and Georgia serving as regional hosts.
Regional action takes place from Nov. 11-15 with the four hosts advancing to the Championship Rounds, Nov. 19-20, at the brand new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The remainder of the field will participate in Subregionals held in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Huntsville, Texas, Nov. 19-21.
Joining the four Regional Round hosts in the Progressive Legends Classic are Duquesne, James Madison, Liberty, North Dakota State, Sam Houston State, Southern Miss, UC Irvine, and Youngstown.