Bearkat WBB Reaches Pinnacle Of Success
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
The Sam Houston women’s basketball team will play the Tulane Green Wave Thursdays night in New Orleans in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
The full 64-team field for the postseason WNIT was announced Monday night.
The winner of the Sam Houston vs. Tulane game faces the Arkansas vs. Memphis winner.
Those two teams will face off Thursday in Fayetteville.
Tulane reached the quarterfinals of the Conference USA post-season tournament, falling to host Tulsa 75-68.
The Green Wave produced a 22-8 record during the 2013 seasons.
Tulane tied for second place in Conference USA with an 11-4 league mark.
Sam Houston State earned its WNIT postseason berth by finishing as co-champions in the Southland Conference and advancing to its first Southland post-season tournament finals appearance.
The 2013 WNIT field will include 31 teams that earned automatic berths and 33 teams that are selected at-large.
“The girls and coaching staff are excited to still be playing basketball,” head coach Brenda Nichols said. “Looking at who some of the bubble teams are for NCAA selection, the WNIT should have an outstanding field this year. It’s a thrill to get to test ourselves against the best.”
The postseason WNIT will open with first-round games Wednesday through Friday, March 20-22.
The event culminates Saturday, April 6, with the championship game which will be telecast live on CBS Sports Network.
All games are hosted by participating schools.
Sam Houston earned its first women’s basketball Southland Conference regular season title in its 26 years in the league in 2013 with an 18-14 overall mark and 13-5 league record.
The WNIT schedule by round:
Round 1 – March 20-22
Round 2 – March 23-25
Round 3 – March 27-29
Quarterfinals – March 30-April 1
Semifinals – April 3-4
Championship Game – April 6, 2 p.m.
Bearkat WBB Earns SLC Honors
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Britni Martin and Sequeena Thomas both are first team All-Southland selections.
Thomas is the 2013 Southland Conference “Defensive Player of the Year” and Bearkat head coach Brenda Nichols has been honored as the league’s women’s basketball “Coach of the Year.”
Thomas also was named to the first ever Southland All-Defensive team and the Bearkats’ Chanice Smith was an honorable mention All-Southland selection.
The 2013 All-Southland Conference women’s basketball team was announced Monday morning.
The honor squad is selected by vote of the league’s head coaches and sports information directors.
Thomas led Sam Houston State to its first-ever Southland regular-season title.
The senior from Allentown, Pa. (Parkview H.S.), led the league in rebounding with 12.5 rebounds per conference game, including 9.4 defensive rebounds per league game.
She registered 1.3 blocks per contest and recorded a league-best 19 double-doubles.
Thomas finished the regular season with 371 rebounds including a conference-best 20-rebound performance in a win against Oral Roberts in January.
Thomas is the first Sam Houston player to earn defender of the year honors.
Thomas stands as Sam Houston’s all-time leader in rebounds (1,129) and blocks (159) and stands No. 4 in Bearkat career scoring (1,381).
She is the only SHSU women’s basketball player to total both 1,000 career points and rebounds.
Smith is the Bearkats’ third leading scorer with 9.5 points per game.
The senior from Mansfield totaled 17 double-figure scoring performances during the 2013 championship season.
She stands as Sam Houston’s 13th all-time leading scorer with 1,081 career points.
Only 14 women’s basketball players in the program’s history have scored more than 1,000 points.
Martin led the Bearkats’ 2013 Southland co-championship team in scoring (16.2 points) and assists (4.2).
The senior from Conroe is a three-time All-Southland first team selection.
She ranks as the program’s all-time leader in both three point field goals (306) and free throw percentage (.795) and stands second in career points (1,797) and assists (442).
Martin, an All-Academic honors candidate as well with a 3.68 grade point average as a Masters’ program student in kinesiology, has scored in double figures in 97 of her 119 games at Sam Houston.
That includes a streak of 47 consecutive double figure games during the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
Nichols earned her first coach of the year award after guiding the Bearkats to their first overall South Conference regular-season championship.
She is the second Sam Houston State coach to earn the award, joining Vic Schaefer, who was honored in 1996.
The Bearkats enter this week’s conference tournament with a 17-13 overall record and finished 13-5 during conference play.
The Bearkats head into the tournament as the No. 2 seed and winners of four of their last five contests.
Nichols, who led the Bearkats to division titles in 2011 and 2012 before the conference did away with divisional play this season, is looking to guide Sam Houston to its second consecutive postseason trip after advancing to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Basketball Invitational last year.
Nichols, who is in her seventh season in Huntsville, has a 78-128 record at Sam Houston, including a 52-39 mark the last three seasons.
The Southland Conference Basketball Tournament begins Wednesday at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.
The first four games of the tournament will be streamed live for free on the Southland Conference Digital Network, including Southland.org and the league’s iPhone and Android apps.
The semifinals and championship game of the women’s tournament will be available solely on ESPN3.
Tickets for the tournament are available through Ticketmaster or at the Merrell Center box office.
Bearkats Finds Rhythm To Take Series From Warhawks
By Cheval John
Sam Houston State took the weekend series against the University of Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks with a 4-2 win on Saturday and a 7-3 victory on Sunday.
The Bearkat pitchers neutralized UL-Monroe’s dangerous hitter Corben Green in the rubber match as he went 0-3.
Green had a .500 batting average with three RBI’s in the first two games of the series.
“The key with Green is getting him with two strikes because he will chase a breaking ball if you get him there,” coach David Pierce said. “We froze him in his third at-bat because he was looking for the breaking ball. … I believe he was guessing because we were pitching ahead of him all day.
Green hit a two-out, RBI double that scored Dalton Herrington from third base to make it 1-0.
The Bearkats (3-4) had opportunities in the second and third innings to get on the board, but both times, they left runners on the base pads.
The third time was the charm as the Bearkats finally capitalized on their opportunity as they exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 4-1 lead thanks to a pair of RBI singles by Ryan Farney, Luke Plucheck, Colt Atwood, and Carter Burgess.
Spence Rahm had a great series as he was the catalyst of getting things going for the Bearkats.
Rahm started the inning with a single and advanced to second on a Kevin Miller singled. to put runners on first and second.
He scored on Farney’s single.
Green’s RBI singled in the top of the sixth cut the lead to 4-2.
The Warhawks (4-3) had an opportunity to either tie the game or take the lead in the top of the seventh inning and ninth innings.
Though Chris Dudley struck out, a pass ball allowed him to reach first to lead off the seventh.
He advanced to second on another pass ball.
Kodie Tidwell issued with a walk to put runners on first and second with the possibility of tying the game.
David Abdalla followed with a bunt single to load the bases with no outs.
But starting pitcher Cody Dickson, who went the distance for the Kats and got his first win of the season, settled down and got the next three outs (strike out, foul out and ground out) to get out of the jam.
Dudley hit an infield single to lead off the ninth.
Dickson got Tidwell hit into a fielder’s choice and Abdalla to fly out for two outs, the Bearkats was not out of the woods as pinched-hitter Les Alexander got a base hit to put the tying run on first base.
But that as far as they would get as Dickson struck out Justin Fuller to preserve the win.
“I just went up there and threw strikes and let my defense do as much as possible,” Dickson said. “Overall, it was a great game and thankful to finally get another win.”
The Bearkats maintained their moment in the rubber game as they closed out the Warhawks 7-3.
The Kats was patient at the plate and fought off some pitches that allowed them to get to starting pitcher Trey Setzer, who lasted only 1 1/3 innings and suffered the loss.
“Our guys did a good job of staying in the middle of the field,” Pierce said.
SHSU was able to strike first in the bottom of the first inning when Carter Burgess scored from second on a throwing error by Tidwell to take a 1-0 lead.
Luke Plucheck’s RBI single to left field in the bottom of the second gave the Bearkats a 2-0 lead.
Ryan O’Hearn, who went three for four with an RBI, led off the inning with a double down the right field line and advanced to third on a pass ball and scored on Plucheck’s single.
The Warhawks responded in the top of the third inning when Jeff Fuller scored to cut the lead to 2-1 first run on a throwing error by catching Jesse Plumlee after trying to get Brandon Alexander at first when he laid down a bunt.
Fuller led off the top of the third with a single and advanced to second on a pass ball which allowed Alexander to advance to second.
He went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Logan Fiasco.
It seemed as if UL-Monroe was going to tie the game, but starting pitcher Andrew Godail, who went six innings with seven strike outs and got his first win of the year, settled down and struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
The Bearkats would give Godail some breathing room after they exploded for three runs in the bottom of the third to increase their lead to 5-1 thanks to a two-run double by Spence Rahm and an RBI single by Ryan O’Hearn.
The Warhawks cut the Bearkat lead to 5-3 in the top of the sixth thanks to a Judd Edward’s RBI double and David Abdalla’s RBI single.
UL-Monroe trailed the entire game, but they were not going to go down without a fight.
In the top of the seventh inning, Brandon Alexander led off with a double.
After reliever Jordan Church got Tidwell to ground out for the first out, Azar made up for the error and threw out Alexander at third to get the second out.
A few pitches later, Church struck out Logan Fiasco to get out of the jam.
SHSU added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to increased their lead to 7-3 and held on for the victory.
Bearkats Finished Season At No.2
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
For the second year in a row, the Sam Houston State (SHSU) Bearkats have finished the season as No.2 in the FCS Sports Network polls.
The Bearkats went through three Big Sky tri-champion teams (Cal Poly, Montana State and Eastern Washington) to make a return trip to the FCS National Championship game in Frisco, where they lost to the eventual champion, North Dakota State (NDSU) Bison.
NDSU was the Sports Network’s No. 1 team and were ranked No. 1 in 11 of the 14 polls this season.
SHSU (11-4) was voted second on 128 of the 142 ballots.
Coach Willie Fritz’s Bearkats, the Southland Conference co-champions, finished behind North Dakota State in the point total, 3,550 to 3,386.
The other two teams to reach the national semifinals, Southern Conference tri-champion Georgia Southern (10-4) and Eastern Washington (11-3), finished No. 3 and 4, respectively.
The rest of the Top 10 was No. 5 Montana State (11-2), No. 6 Old Dominion (11-2), No. 7 Wofford (9-4), a SoCon tri-champion; No. 8 Illinois State (9-4), No. 9 Appalachian State (8-4), a SoCon tri-champion and No. 10 Central Arkansas (9-3), a Southland co-champion.
Next up were No. 11 Stony Brook (10-3), a Big South Conference tri-champion, No. 12 Cal Poly (9-3), No. 13 New Hampshire (8-4), a CAA Football tri-champion, No. 14 South Dakota State (9-4), No. 15 Villanova (8-4), a CAA tri-champion, No. 16 Lehigh (10-1), No. 17 Towson (7-4), a CAA tri-champion, No. 18 Richmond (8-3), a CAA tri-champion, No. 19 James Madison (7-4), and No. 20 Northern Arizona (8-3).
Northeast Conference champion Wagner (9-4) finished at No. 21, followed by No. 22 Bethune-Cookman (9-3), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion, No. 23 Eastern Kentucky (8-3), No. 24 Coastal Carolina (8-5), a Big South tri- champion; and No. 25 Colgate (8-4), the Patriot League champion.
The first teams outside the Top 25 were Eastern Illinois, the Ohio Valley Conference champion, and Indiana State, which handed North Dakota State its only loss of the season, 17-14 on Oct. 13.
The CAA finished with the most teams in the Top 25 with six, followed by the Big Sky with four and the Missouri Valley and SoCon with three each.
There were two teams each from the Southland, Big South and Patriot League, and one each from the MEC, NEC and Ohio Valley Conference.
A national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries selected the Top 25 throughout the season.
A first-place vote was worth 25 points, a second-place vote 24 points, all the way down to one point for a 25th-place vote.