'Jacks Begin Three Game Stretch At UL-Monroe
1/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2005
FIRST OF THREE STRAIGHT: The Lumberjacks start a stretch of three straight away from the William R. Johnson Coliseum Thursday night in Monroe, La. against the Indians of UL-Monroe. SFA is 2-4 away from the coliseum for the year and enters Thursday night's game in search of conference win number one following a disappointing 69-63 loss to Northwestern State a week ago. With three straight on the road, the Lumberjacks must find a way to win away from home or risk falling into a hole in the first quarter of the conference race. SFA is 1-3 against the Indians in Monroe, La. under Danny Kaspar, including a two point loss last season (60-58) and an overtime loss (68-62) in his first year with the Lumberjacks.
THE LAST GAME: SFA started the conference race with a loss to one of the preseason favorites, Northwestern State the last time out. The 'Jacks streaked to an 11-point halftime lead, but could not hold on as Northwestern State outscored the Lumberjacks 46-29 in the second half to pick up a 69-63 win. The 'Jacks got off to a great start shooting the ball, connecting on nine of their first 12 shots and shot just over 57 percent for the first half. G Josh Porter scored 10 points to help the 'Jacks to the lead. The second half was a different story however as Porter was held scoreless and the 'Jacks shot only 40 percent after the break while Northwestern State used penetration and short shots to connect on 18 of 30 attempts (.600) to erase the lead. SFA still had a chance with just over a minute to play, but Leonard Brown missed a lay-up which would have cut the Demon lead to three and Northwestern State went the other way to stretch the lead to seven.
VS. THE OPPONENT: UL-Monroe leads the overall series, 28-14. The teams split the season series a year ago with each team winning on its home floor. The Indians won in Monroe, La. 60-58 and the Lumberjacks won in Nacogdoches, 81-68.
THE OPPONENT: Ul-Monroe enters Thursday's game at 6-7 on the year and 0-2 in SLC play. The Indians have dropped three straight including a one point loss (65-64) at McNeese State, Saturday. UL-Monroe features a balanced attack with 11 players averaging more than 11 minutes per game. Ten different players have started at least one game so far this season. DeAndre Alexander leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 9.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Cecil Hood is adding 9.3 ppg while Adrian Harper is averaging 8.9 points per night. Gary Robinson is adding 6.0 rpg for the Indians. UL-Monroe is shooting .437 from the field and .375 on three point attempts for the year and has outrebounded its opponents by an average of 5.5 rpg.
THE COACHES: The Lumberjacks are coached by Danny Kaspar (289-107) in his fifth year with the Lumberjacks. Kaspar is 70-55 at SFA. The fifth year head coach can move past Ned Fowler into fifth place on the all-time wins list with nine more wins this year. Kaspar is 5-3 against the Indians. UL-Monroe is coached by Mike Vining (399-290) in his 24th season with the Indians. Vining is one win away from becoming the 29th active coach with 400 career victories. He is 24-9 against the Lumberjacks.
UP NEXT: SFA continues the road trip with stops at Sam Houston (1/15) and at Nicholls State (1/19) before returning home to host Lamar (1/22).
