Stephen F. Austin
Texas State
SFA Claims Fourth Seed With Win Over Texas State
3/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 6, 2004
SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Marcus Clark led four Lumberjacks in double figures with 16 points as the 'Jacks closed out the regular season with a 72-56 win over Texas State Friday night in San Marcos. The Lumberjacks also got 12 points each from Hank Rivers and Antonio Burks, while Dedrick Sanders added 10 points.
The win moved SFA to 10-6 in Southland Conference play and gives the Lumberjacks the fourth seed in the Southland Conference postseason tournament. SFA opens the tournament Monday night, at home, against Sam Houston. The Bearkats closed out the regular season with a 107-85 win over Lamar Friday afternoon in Huntsville.
SFA jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening minutes of the game and never trailed in the contest. Texas State trimmed the lead back to four points at 14-10 with 10:07 remaining in the half before SFA closed out the half on a 17-7 run to take a 31-17 lead in at the half.
The Lumberjacks quickly stretched the lead to 20 in the second half before the Bobcats mounted a comeback that saw them cut the lead to only seven points on two separate occasions. The 'Jacks answered with buckets from both Marcus Clark and Antonio Burks each time the Bobcats cut the lead to seven. Following Burks' basket, the 'Jacks stretched the lead back to 14 points with just over five minutes to play and eventually won by the 72-56 final.
SFA ended the night shooting .511 (23-45) from the field while holding Texas State to .392 from the floor (20-51). Texas State did connect on eight of 21 three point attempts, including 5-10 in the second half. The Bobcats ended up outrebounding the 'Jacks 30-28 for the game. Hank Rivers led SFA with six rebounds. Terry Conerway led Texas State with 18 points while Zach Allison led them on the boards with nine rebounds.
