'Jacks To Take On UT-Arlington Wednesday Night
3/9/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 9, 2004
SEMI-FINALS MATCH-UP: The Lumberjacks advanced to the semi-final round of the Southland Conference Postseason Tournament with an 85-53 win over Sam Houston Monday night. The 'Jacks will travel to Arlington to take on UT-Arlington Wednesday night. Monday night's win over Sam Houston put the 'Jacks into the semi-final round for the second straight year and also extended SFA's home court winning streak to 30 straight. The streak is the longest active home court winning streak in the country. The 'Jacks moved to 4-8 in Southland Conference Tournament play with the Monday night win over Sam Houston and a win Wednesday night would mark the first time ever for a Lumberjack team to win two tournament games in the same season. The 'Jacks went 1-1 in the tournament a year ago after receiving a first round bye. SFA and UT-Arlington split the regular season series with each team winning on its home floor.
LAST GAME: SFA opened the Southland Conference Postseason Tournament with an 85-53 win over Sam Houston to extend its home court winning streak to 30 in a row. The win also completed a series sweep of the Bearkats for the year, as the 'Jacks took all three games between the two teams. Sam Houston scored the first four points of the game before the Lumberjacks went on a 17-1 run to take a 17-5 lead with 13:07 to go in the first half. Sam Houston never recovered and went into the half trailing by 19, 41-22. Marcus Clark opened the second half with consecutive three-pointers to build the lead to 25 and the Bearkats were finished. SFA stretched the lead to as many as 30 points with just over seven minutes left and cruised to the win. Dedrick Sanders led the 'Jacks with 17-points and eight rebounds. Hank Rivers had 11 points while Antonio Burks and Jasen Gast and 10 each. The 'Jacks shot an even 50 percent from the field (31-62) and 40 percent (8-20) from beyond the three point arc while holding Sam Houston to 37.2 percent from the floor and 27.3 percent (3-11) from beyond the arc. SFA outrebounded the Bearkats 38-27 and outscored SHSU 18-7 on second chance points.
VS. UT-ARLINGTON: SFA leads the overall series 27-18 but has lost seven straight in Arlington including a 71-67 loss to the Mavericks earlier this year. UTA is 12-11 against SFA at home. The 'Jacks won the first meeting between the two teams this season, 71-44.
THE MAVERICKS: UT-Arlington enters Wednesday night's game riding a nine game winning streak that dates back to Feb. 7. The Mavericks are 12-1 at home this season. Top seeded UTA beat eighth seed UL-Monroe 77-62 Monday night to advance to the semi-finals against SFA. Derrick Obasohan leads UT-Arlington in scoring, averaging 16.2 points per game. He is joined in double figures by Steven Thomas (12.1 ppg), Donny Beacham (10.3 ppg) and Keith Howell (10.3 ppg). Beacham also leads the team in rebounding with 6.6 boards per game. The Mavericks lead the SLC in field goal percentage, shooting .464 from the field.
THE COACHES: The Lumberjacks are coached by Danny Kaspar (282-100) in his fourth year with the Lumberjacks. Kaspar is 63-48 at SFA. The fourth year head coach moved past Glen Rose into sixth place on the all time wins list with the win over UTSA earlier this year. Next on the list is Ned Fowler with 78 wins. Kaspar is 3-5 against the Mavericks. UT-Arlington is coached by Eddie McCarter, in his 12th season with the Mavericks. McCarter is 152-179 as a head coach.
UP NEXT: With a win, the Lumberjacks would advance to the championship round of the tournament at a site to be determined.
