Stephen F. Austin
Sam Houston State
SFA Dominant In Win Over Sam
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team got its most balanced scoring effort of the season and did a stellar job of taking care of the ball to collect a 79-57 win over rival Sam Houston State Thursday, in front of a rocking, near-capacity crowd at the William R. Johnson Coliseum.
SFA led wire-to-wire in the dominant victory, which strengthens the Lumberjacks' hold on the Southland Conference West Division lead. SFA improves to 22-3, extending the best start through 25 games since the 1971-72 season, when the Lumberjacks went 23-2 over the first 25 contests. SFA is now 10-2 in SLC play, keeping the first Southland Conference championship within reach at a half-game back of Lamar.
For the first time this season, five different Lumberjacks reached double figures in scoring, led by 18 and 17, respectively from junior center Matt Kingsley and senior guard Gerald Fonzie. On the other end of the court, SFA held Sam Houston's big guns in check, as none of the Bearkat starters reached double digits in the scoring column.
The Lumberjacks also won the turnover battle by a wide margin. SFA finished the first half without a turnover and wound up with a 13-4 edge for the game, outscoring the Bearkats, 14-8, in points off turnovers.
Kingsley opened the game by winning the tip then stroking two free throws on the Lumberjacks' first possession. SFA then stonewalled the Bearkats (19-6, 7-5 SLC) on their next three possessions and jumped out to a 7-0 lead behind a 3-pointer by junior forward Nick Shaw and a jumper from Kingsley.
Sam answered with a 3-pointer by Ryan Bright to cut the lead to four, but Fonzie responded by uncorking the first of a career-high-tying five threes on the night, and the Bearkats would not trim the lead inside five points again.
Shaw put the `Jacks up by 10 for the first time at the 12:15 mark when he drove the baseline for a fearsome two-handed dunk that brought the rowdy crowd of 6,987 out of its seats. It wouldn't be the last time. Freshman Eddie Williams hit jumpers on two of SFA's next four possessions to push the lead to 12 points at the 9:51 mark, and leading scorer Josh Alexander brought down the house two minutes later when he hit a 3-pointer from the corner, falling out of bounds in front of the Sam Houston bench with the shot-clock winding down. It was his only trey of the night, but it gave his team a 22-9 advantage, and the Bearkats never recovered.
SFA stretched its lead to as many as 15 points in the first half before taking a 33-26 lead to the locker room at the break. After shooting just 36 percent in the opening frame, the Lumberjacks turned up the pressure by shooting 59.3 percent after halftime. Meanwhile, the Bearkats went backwards, hitting 37 percent from the floor in the second half, and SFA led by as many as 25 points down the stretch.
Shaw, Alexander and Williams joined Kingsley and Fonzie in double digits. Shaw finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists. Alexander scrapped for 11 points and tied Kingsley for game-high honors with seven rebounds. Williams added 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor.
Sophomore point guard Eric Bell finished with six points and six assists, while junior center Benson Akpan contributed three blocked shots and five rebounds, including three on offense. For the game, the Lumberjacks outrebounded Sam Houston, 36-35, and turned a 12-10 edge in offensive boards into a 13-10 win in second-chance points.
In a series where seven of the last 11 games, entering Thursday's showdown, had been decided by six points or fewer, the 22-point margin of victory is the largest since the Lumberjacks took an 85-53 verdict in the first round of the 2003-04 SLC Tournament.
SFA will next take the floor on Feb. 27, when the Lumberjacks travel to San Marcos, Texas, to take on Texas State. The game against the Bobcats is slated for a 7 p.m. tip.
-- SFA --
