SFA Opens Season's Final Home Stand
2/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 29, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
Texas-Arlington at SFA
March 1, 2008 • 6:00 p.m.
William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,200) • Nacogdoches, Texas
Radio: KTBQ (107.7 FM) • Television: None • Internet: Yahoo! Sports
Game Information
Last Home Stand: The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team opens its last home stand of the season Saturday, when SFA hosts Southland Conference West Division foe Texas-Arlington. The game against the Mavericks is set for a 6 p.m. tip from the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The Lumberjacks come into the game with the best record in the SLC at 23-3 on the season. SFA leads the SLC West Division with an 11-2 mark in conference play. The Mavericks enter Satur-day's game at 17-10 overall with a 6-8 record against league opponents.
Last Game: After playing catch-up for the entire first period, SFA rallied for a 74-70 win at Texas State Wednesday night. The Bobcats jumped out to an early lead and pressed their advantage to as many as nine before SFA answered with an 11-2 run over the final 4:40 of the first half. The Lumberjacks took their first lead of the game with 43 seconds left and didn't relinquish it. SFA hit 17 free throws after halftime be-hind an 8-for-10 effort at the stripe in the second half by junior center Matt Kingsley. Kingsley scored 12 points in the second half -- 13 in all -- and pulled down 10 rebounds for his fourth career double-double. Junior forward Josh Alexander hit 4-for-6 from 3-point range in the first half and finished with a team-high 16 points. Freshman Eddie Williams added 10 points and pulled down a career-high eight re-bounds. SFA committed just nine turnovers, the second straight game and fifth time this season for the Lumberjacks to give the ball up fewer than 10 times.
vs. Texas-Arlington: SFA leads the all-time series with the Mavericks, 27-25. Under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks are 7-8 gainst Texas-Arlington. SFA is 5-5 in the last 10 regular-season meetings with a 3-2 mark over the last five clashes. The Lumberjacks are 5-2, under Kaspar, in games against the Mavericks played at William R. Johnson Coliseum. SFA took a 71-49 win at Arlington in the teams' first meeting this season, snapping an 11-year regular-season drought for the Lumberjacks at Texas Hall.
The Mavericks: Texas-Arlington opened the season with an impressive eight-game winning streak and began Southland Conference play with a 4-2 record, but the Mavericks have struggled to find their feet following back-to-back losses against Sam Houston State and SFA. UTA is 3-4 since then and has lost four of its last five games.
The Coaches: SFA is led by head coach Danny Kaspar. Kaspar is in his eighth season at the helm for the Lumberjacks. He holds a record of 131-93 (.585) at SFA and has a 350-145 (.707) overall record in his 17th season as a collegiate head coach. Texas-Arlington is coached by Scott Cross. Cross is 30-27 (.526) in two seasons with the Mavericks.
Up Next: SFA will play its final home game of the regular season when the Lum-berjacks take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next Wednesday in a 7 p.m. game. SFA will then wrap up the 2007-08 season by traveling to take on Texas-San Antonio on Saturday, March 8. That game is slated to begin at 2 p.m.
News and Notes
• SPECIAL SEASON: SFA's 23-3 mark is the best record, to this point, for a Lumberjack team since becoming a Division I program in the 1986-87 season. It marks the third 20-win season in head coach Danny Kaspar's tenure and is the highest win total for a Kaspar-coached team to date. The mark is also tied for the best record through 26 games for SFA since the Lumberjacks went 24-2 through the first 26 games of the 1971-72 season. SFA finished that year 31-3.
• DOUBLE-DOUBLE: SFA is closing in on a double-double of a different sort this season. The Lumberjacks put together a 10-game win streak to close out the non-conference portion of their regular season, and they are currently two games away from matching that streak with another double-digit run. This would mark the first time in program history for SFA to put together two double-figure winning steaks in a single regular season. The Lumberjacks cobbled together a 16-game streak followed by a 14-game streak in the 1971-72 season, when the team went 31-3 overall, but the second run included five postseason games, with the regular-season streak stopping at nine.
• RANK AND FILE: A week after pushing past the 10th spot of the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 for the first time, SFA moved up from No. 9 to No. 6 in Monday's poll. In addition, the Lumberjacks received a first-place vote for the first time in school history. This is SFA's 12th straight week in the rankings -- the longest stay in school history -- after entering the poll at No. 25 on Dec. 10, following the Lumberjacks' upset win at Oklahoma. SFA then moved up in the poll each week, jumping to 22nd, 16th, then 11th, before cracking the Top 10 for the first time in school history a month ago. Monday's No. 6 ranking is the highest attained by SFA in the nine-year history of the Mid-Major Top 25.
• VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Lumberjacks received seven votes in Monday's Associated Press Top 25 Poll, marking most votes in the national poll in program history. This comes on the heels of SFA's earning two votes in last week's poll. SFA received a vote in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll in each of the last two weeks of December. This marked the first time since the 2002-03 season for the Lumberjacks to earn a vote in a national Top 25 poll. That year, SFA earned one vote in the Associated Press poll.
• TOP GUNS: As Josh Alexander and Matt Kingsly go, so go the Lum-berjacks. SFA's three losses this season have one thing in common: the Lumberjacks' top two scorers have been contained offensively, on aver-age, in all three losing verdicts. While Alexander averages 16.5 points per game in SFA's 23 wins, and Kingsley averages 16.3 points per win, their averages dip to 14.3 and 11.3 points per game, respectively, in the Lum-berjacks' three defeats. The scoring averages for SFA's next three highest scorers fluctuate less than a full point per game from wins to losses.
• DEFENSE FIRST: SFA's defense has been dominant this season. The Lumberjacks have held opponents to an average of 54.3 points per game. Through games of Feb. 24, SFA's opponent scoring average of 53.7 points per game led the nation. While good defense has long been a mark of Danny Kaspar-coached teams, the Lumberjacks have never finished better than 12th in the national rankings in terms of scoring defense. This season, the Lumberjacks have held 18 opponents to 60 points or fewer and have only allowed two teams to break 70. SFA has held opponents to 37.9 percent shooting from the field and ranked seventh in the country in that category, entering this week's action.
• DOUBLE-UP: SFA posted just three double-doubles all of last season -- Josh Alexander had two, and Matt Kingsley recorded one. The Lumber-jacks have already surpassed that mark this year with six double-doubles -- each of the first four coming from a different player. Kingsley posted the first with 22 points and 13 rebounds against Jackson State. Nick Shaw then scored 17 points and pulled down 16 rebounds against Louisiana-Monroe, and Eric Bell had 18 points with 11 assists at Northern Illinois three days later. Alexander finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds at Jackson State, then recorded his seventh career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds at Nicholls State. Kingsley scored 13 points with 10 rebounds against Texas State on Feb. 27 for his fourth career double-double.
• FOUR OF A KIND: The Lumberjacks have had at least four players hit double digits in scoring in a single game six times this season -- against Jackson State, Louisiana-Monroe, Southern, at Oklahoma and against Paul Quinn. The quadruple-double against Jackson State marked the first time four SFA players hit double digits in a single game since Jan. 11 of last season, when SFA took a 73-72 overtime victory at Lamar. In the Lum-berjacks' 79-57 win over Sam Houston State, five players reached double digits -- the first time since SFA's Dec. 30, 2006, win over Howard Payne for SFA to put a quintet in double figures scoring.
• DIAL "1" FOR ASSISTANCE: Sophomore point guard Eric Bell (jersey number 1) leads the Southland Conference in assists at 5.81 per game and ranked 27th in the nation entering this week. He posted a career-high 11 assists at Northern Illinois. That marked the first double-digit assist effort for a Lumberjack since Marcus Clark dished out 10 in a game during the 2005-06 season. Bell also leads the Southland in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.32 and ranked 27th in the nation in that category when the week began.
• ALEXANDER THE GREAT: Junior forward Josh Alexander is enjoying a record year in 2007-08. The Shreveport, La., native has scored 15 or more points on 17 different occasions this season, including five performances with more than 20 points, and has three double-digit rebound efforts. His 16.2 points per game average has him on pace to crack the top 12 on SFA's list of career scoring leaders, and he recently became the all-time leader in career 3-point field goals. Alexander has hit 78 3-pointers this season -- a new career-high for triples in a season -- and has 223 for his career. He broke into the 1,000-point scorers list with his 14th point in SFA's loss at Nicholls State, where he finished with a game-high 18 points.
• FAST START: SFA opened the season with a 12-1 record, the best start to a season since the program joined the NCAA Division I ranks. The fantastic start was the best 13-game mark for the program since the 1981-82 season, when the Lumberjacks opened the season with seven straight wins and went on to post a 14-1 record before finally recording their second loss of the season in the 16th game. SFA's 10-game winning streak earlier this season was the program's first double-digit run since the 'Jacks won 13 in a row during the 2002-03 season.
• ON A ROLL ON THE ROAD: SFA's 10-game winning streak earlier this season included five straight victories in non-conference road games and a neutral-site win. This marks the first time in program history for the Lumberjacks to win five straight road games against Division I, non-con-ference opponents. It's the first time since the 1981-82 season for SFA to win more than three straight out-of-conference road games against any level of competition. Overall, the Lumberjacks are 11-3 in games outside of William R. Johnson Coliseum this season.
• STINGY ON THE GLASS: The Lumberjacks give up the fewest re-bounds per game in the Southland Conference. SFA is currently allowing its opponents just 31.3 rebounds per game.
• PERFECT IN THE WRJ: The Lumberjacks are out to a 12-0 start in home games at the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The last time a Lumber-jack team won more than three in a row at home to start a season was in 2003-04, when SFA went 16-0 at home as part of a 31-game home win-ning streak that dated to the previous season and was the longest active streak in the nation by the time it was finally broken.
• SAFE AT HOME: In seven-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled an 87-26 (.770) record in the Wil-liam R. Johnson Coliseum, including a 12-0 home mark this season. SFA is 283-117 (.708) all-time in the Coliseum. The 'Jacks went 10-5 (.667) at home in 2006-07. SFA defeated UT-Tyler, 63-47, in the 2007-08 season opener. Kaspar's teams are a perfect 8-0 in home openers at SFA.
Scouting the Mavericks
• FOR THE RECORD: Texas-Arlington opened the season with an eight-game winning streak and won 10 of its first 12 games. After dropping their first two Southland Conference games, the Mavericks had won four consecutive SLC con- tests before losing back-to-back games against Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin. Since that point, UTA has won just three times and has dropped four of its last five games. The Mavericks are coming off a 79-65 home loss against Sam Houston.
• LAST GAME: The Mavericks shot just 35.5 percent from the field in Wednes- day's 79-65 loss at home against Sam Houston State. Texas-Arlington hit the same number of field goals (22) as Sam Houston, but the Bearkats shot 44 per- cent from the floor and hit a red-hot 28-for-31 from the free throw line in collecting the win. Sam Houston outrebounded the Mavericks, 44-34, led by 11 boards from DeLuis Ramirez, one of three Bearkats to score in double figures. Anthony Vereen came off the bench for UTA to knock down six of seven field goals for a game-high 17 points. Jermaine Griffin and Rod Epps joined him in double digits with 13 and 10, respectively, and Tommy Moffitt pulled down 10 rebounds.
• KEY NUMBERS: Texas-Arlington has consistently been one of the best shoot- ing teams in the Southland Conference this season. The Mavericks hit 47 percent from the field, which ranks third in the SLC, and their field goal percentage de- fense is fourth-best in the league at .393. UTA also defends the three well, holding opponents to .311 from beyond the arc, which ranks third in the conference. The Mavericks don't give up many second shots, as they are second in the league in defensive rebounding with 27.67 boards per game.
• LEADERS: Senior center Jermaine Griffin leads the Mavericks and ranks 12th in the Southland Conference with 12.7 points per game. He is also second in the SLC in rebounding with 7.9 boards per contest and holds the league's No. 2 spot in field goal percentage, hitting 65.3 percent from the floor. Sophomore guard Rog'er Guignard is neck-and-neck with Griffin in the league scoring race at 12.7 points per outing. He is the Mavericks' top 3-point threat, hitting an average of 2.81 treys per contest -- second in the SLC. Freshman forward Trey Parker is eighth in the conference in blocked shots with 1.24 per game.
• For the complete release, click on the "Texas-Arlington Game Notes" link in the side bar of the Men's Basketball home page.
-- SFA --
