GAME NOTES: at St. Mary's Shamrock Classic
12/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
Complete Release in PDF Format 
VITALS
SFA at St. Mary's Shamrock Classic
Stephen F. Austin vs. Howard
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009 • 7:00 p.m. (CST)
Stephen F. Austin vs. Binghamton
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009 • 7:00 p.m. (CST)
McKeon Pavilion (3,500) • Moraga, Calif.
Radio: None • TV: None • Online: None
Lumberjacks
Record: 7-3
Last 5/Streak: 4-1/W1
Coach: Danny Kaspar
Career: 384-159
At SFA: 165-107
SID: Brian Ross
E-mail: rossbrian@sfasu.edu
Web: sfajacks.com
Bison
Record: 1-10
Last 5/Streak: 1-4/L2
Coach: Gil Jackson
Career: 31-103
At HU: 31-103
SID: Edward Hill Jr.
E-mail: ehill@howard.edu
Web: howard-bison.com
Bearcats
Record: 4-8
Last 5/Streak: 2-3/W1
Coach: Mark Macon
Career: 4-8
At BU: 4-8
SID: John Hartrick
E-mail: hartrick@binghamton.edu
Web: bubearcats.com
GAME INFORMATION
ONE MORE TIME IN '09 : The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team will wrap up the 2009 calendar year this week with a two-game road trip to Moraga, Calif., for the St. Mary's Shamrock Office Solutions Classic. The 'Jacks will take on Howard and Binghamton in the two-day event. SFA comes into the week with a 7-3 record, having won six of its last seven contests. Binghamton brings a 4-8 overall mark to the event, while Howard comes in at 1-10.
LAST GAME: SFA bounced back from its first loss in nearly a month to roll to a 102-68 win over East Central (Okla.) last Tuesday. Jordan Glynn paced the 'Jacks with 20 points and 13 rebounds -- both career-highs -- to mark his fifth consecutive double-double. SFA held a 55-36 lead at the half and poured it on in the second period, shooting 59 percent, while holding the Tigers to 33 percent. SFA finished with a 60-32 advantage in points in the paint. Five Lumberjacks reached double digits in scoring. Starters Jereal Scott and Eddie Williams joined Glynn with 13 and 11 points, respectively, and Mark Gomillia and Austin Falke each came off the bench to score a career-high 10 points.
THE BISON: Howard comes into the Shamrock Classic on a two-game slide after picking up its first win of the season on Dec. 5. The Bison knocked off Hampton, 56-54, on a neutral floor, ending their season-opening eight-game losing streak. Howard has played 10 of its first 11 games away from home, including six true road contests and four neutral-site games. The Bison have been outscored by an average of 15.5 points per game.
THE BEARCATS: Binghamton is coming off a road win at Marist, but the Bearcats have lost three of their last four games and are a combined 2-6 away from home. In two previous neutral-site contests this season, Binghamton is 1-1, having defeated Arkansas-Monticello and lost to Duquesne. The Bearcats average 57.8 points per game while allowing 65.8 per outing to the opposition.
vs. OPPONENTS: SFA will be meeting both Howard and Binghamton for the first time ever. In all, there are four first-time opponents on the Lumberjacks' 2009-10 schedule.
COVERAGE: Neither of this week's games will be broadcast via radio or television, and there is no online video stream available.
UP NEXT: SFA will host Texas College on Jan. 2 in a 6 p.m. game. The 'Jacks will then have a week off to prepare for the Southland Conference opener at Sam Houston State on Jan. 9. That game is set for a 7 p.m. tip.
NEWS AND NOTES
TOURNAMENT TEAM: Entering this week's St. Mary's Shamrock Classic, SFA is 5-1 in six regular-season, tournament-style events over the last two campaigns. The Lumberjacks won two games to capture the Drake Hy-Vee Classic championship last season, then split a pair of contests at the Arkansas Jim Thorpe Classic. Earlier this season, SFA notched wins over Southern and Cal State Fullerton to win the inaugural Etech Lumberjack Classic.
HITTIN' A HUNDRED: The Lumberjacks' 102-point outburst against East Central marks SFA's first triple-digit scoring performance in a regulation game since defeating Paul Quinn, 101-48, in the 2005-06 season. In all, SFA has broken 100 points in regulation six times in 10 seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar. The only Division I opponent to give up triple digits against SFA in that span is Jackson State, who suffered a 103-79 defeat in the 2002-03 campaign. The Lumberjacks' highest-scoring regulation game was a 108-51 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State in the 2003-04 campaign.
CAREER HIGHS: Junior forward Jordan Glynn has bettered his career-high in scoring in three of the last four contests and has eclipsed his career rebounding total in three straight games. Glynn erupted for 20 points and 13 rebounds in SFA's win over East Central. In the last four games, he is averaging a staggering 14.5 points and 11.5 rebounds.
BLOCKED UP: Freshman Will Reinke blocked a career-high four shots in SFA's win over East Central. That performance gives him 11 for the season, an average of 1.1 per game. Assuming he can maintain that pace, Reinke will finish the season among the top five on SFA's Division I-era single-season blocks list.
MORE ON CAREER HIGHS: Senior Walt Harris has posted a new career high in scoring in three of his last five games. Harris scored 15 points in SFA's win at Jackson State, then led the team with 20 points in the win over Cal State Fullerton. At Arkansas, Harris scored 22 points in 23 minutes, but was forced to the bench with a strained back muscle with 15 minutes remaining in the second half.
BAD BREAK: The halftime break in SFA's game at Arkansas hurt the Lumberjacks' momentum. SFA went to the locker room with a 33-28 lead but was outscored, 44-36, in the second period of a 72-69 defeat. After shooting 48 percent in the opening half, the 'Jacks slumped to 39 percent after halftime, while the Razorbacks went from 34 percent in first frame to 67 percent following the break. The defeat marks the first time this season for SFA to lose a game in which it led at the break.
DOUBLING UP: Junior forward Jordan Glynn has put together a streak like none yet seen in Danny Kaspar's 10 seasons as head coach at SFA. Including his 20-point, 13-rebound performance against East Central, Glynn has posted five straight double-doubles and six consecutive games with at least 10 rebounds. Prior to this season, no other Lumberjack on a Kaspar-coached team had put together more than two consecutive double-digit rebounding efforts.
TRIPLE THREAT: The Lumberjacks defended the 3-point arc better than any team in the country in 2008-09. SFA led the nation by holding opponents to 26.6 percent from 3-point range last season. Through nine games in 2009-10, Lumberjack foes are hitting 45.0 percent from behind the arc. That figure ranks 334th out of 334 Division I teams in the country.
WIN STREAK: The loss at Arkansas ended SFA's win streak at five games. Prior to the loss to the Razorbacks, SFA hadn't lost a game since its two-point defeat against Texas Tech on Nov. 24. The streak included home victories against Huston-Tillotson, Southern and Cal State Fullerton, along with road wins over Jackson State and Longwood. SFA's longest winning streak last season was eight games, a run that went through the end of the regular season and Southland Conference Tournament before ending in a first-round NCAA Tournament loss against Syracuse.
ROAD-TESTED: SFA is 2-2 so far in road games with the only losses having come in the season opener against No. 18 Minnesota and at Arkansas. The Lumberjacks have defeated Jackson State and Longwood on the road. SFA was 1-4 in road, non-conference games a year ago with the only win coming at Drake. In 10 seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the only other time a Lumberjack team has won more than one road non-conference contest in a single season was 2007-08, when the 'Jacks went 5-2 in such games.
FIRST-TIMERS: SFA has four first-time opponents on its 2009-10 schedule -- Cal State Fullerton, Longwood, Howard and Binghamton. So far, the 'Jacks are 2-0 against the first-timers with wins over Fullerton and Longwood. SFA will meet Binghamton and Howard on Dec. 29 and 30 in the St. Mary's Shamrock Office Supplies Classic.
TOURNAMENT TRENDS: SFA went 2-0 in the inaugural Etech Lumberjack Classic, taking wins against Southern and Cal State Fullerton. That performance moved the 'Jacks to 8-0, all-time, in home regular-season tournament contests. The Etech Classic marked SFA's first home tournament since the Tall Pines Classic in the 1976-77 season.
PERFECTION: Junior point guard Denzel Barnes put up the most efficient performance of the young season in SFA's win over Southern. Barnes came off the bench and hit all six of his field goal attempts, including two 3-pointers, to put up a game-high 14 points in just 13 minutes of action. In three games that week, Barnes shot .632 from the field, .714 from 3-point range and went 7-for-7 at the foul stripe to average 12 points per contest.
TWENTY-SOMETHING: Eddie Williams scored 24 points against Jackson State. That marked the first 20-point performance by a Lumberjack this season and the first since Matt Kingsley put up 20 against UTSA in the championship game of last year's Southland Conference Tournament. Williams has broken the 20-point barrier three times in his career, twice hitting a career-high 25 points last season. Walt Harris has scored 20 or more twice this year, hitting 20 against Cal State Fullerton and 22 at Arkansas.
HALF FULL: SFA trailed at halftime in both its games against Jackson State, but the 'Jacks came back to win in both contests, as they did in their victory at Longwood. SFA is now 3-2 this year when trailing at the half. The 'Jacks went just 1-4 in such situations all of last season.
HIGH PERCENTAGE: SFA shot a season-best .585 from the field in its win over Huston-Tillotson. The 'Jacks achieved that mark by taking high-percentage shots. SFA outscored the Rams, 52-24, in the paint. Eddie Williams scored a game-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor. All but one of his field goals came on layups. The .585 shooting percentage is SFA's best since shooting .630 in an 82-67 win at Jackson State during the 2007-08 season.
SLIGHT BLOCKAGE: Coming into its game with Texas Tech, SFA had gone the first two contests of the season without registering a blocked shot. But the 'Jacks swatted two attempts against Tech. The first Lumberjack to record a block in the 2009-10 campaign? Five-foot, three-inch Eric Bell. The SFA point guard knocked down a shot by Tech's John Roberson on the Red Raiders' second possession. It was Bell's fourth career rejection and his first since turning away a shot at Southeastern Louisiana in the 2007-08 season.Two of his five career blocks have come against Big 12 competition, as Bell registered a block in SFA's win at Oklahoma in 2007-08.
HOME-WRECKERS: SFA brought a 15-game homecourt winning streak into its game with Texas Tech, and the Lumberjacks had not lost a home, non-conference game since the 2006-07 campaign. But the Red Raiders left Johnson Coliseum with a 63-61 win, marking the first SFA home loss since a 75-65 defeat against UT Arlington in the second-to-last home game of the 2007-08 season. The Lumberjacks went 13-0 at home last season. SFA is now 30-2 in its last 32 home, non-conference match-ups.
COMEBACK: SFA didn't hold a lead in the second half of its home win against Jackson State until Jordan Glynn gave the Lumberjacks the lead with 1.1 seconds left. The 'Jacks are 2-3 this season in games when they trail in the final five minutes. SFA came from behind in the final five minutes just one time in the 2008-09 season.
HOME OPENER: SFA knocked off Jackson State, 62-61, in the 2009-10 home opener. Head coach Danny Kaspar's teams are 10-0 in home openers at SFA. The last time an SFA team failed to win its home opener was a 67-55 loss to Texas A&M in 1998.
RECORD LOWS IN MINNESOTA: SFA's 82-42 loss at Minnesota goes into the books as the worst margin of defeat in nine-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar. The previous record was a 31-point defeat (92-61) at Arizona in the first game of the 2001-02 season. In all, the 'Jacks have suffered just 12 losses by 20 or more points, and only two by 30 or more, in 264 games under Kaspar.
SEASON OPENERS: SFA is 6-4 in season-opening games under head coach Danny Kaspar. The Lumberjacks have compiled an 11-13 record in season openers as a Division I program (since 1986-87 season). SFA is 1-4 under Kaspar when opening on the road and is just 1-7, in all, as a Division I program when playing the season opener on the road. The Lumberjacks' only season-opening road win in the last 23 seasons was an 82-72 verdict at Tulsa to start the 2005-06 campaign.
FOUR OF A KIND: Former McLennan Community College players Walt Harris, Jordan Glynn, Orren Tims and Eric Bell make SFA the only Division I team in the country with four players from the same junior college on its roster.
BIG WILL: At six feet, 10 inches tall, Will Reinke is the tallest player signed in Danny Kaspar's nine-year tenure at SFA. The only other Lumberjack over 6-9 to play under Kaspar is Stephen Cobb, a 6-11 center who was on the team when Kaspar took over.
ATTENDANCE: SFA ranked second in the Southland Conference last season in average attendance, drawing 3,140 fans per home game. So far this season, the 'Jacks average 2,394 fans per contest.
SAFE AT HOME: In nine-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled a 106-28 (.791) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum. SFA is 302-119 (.717) all-time in the Coliseum. The Lumberjacks finished the 2008-09 home slate with a perfect 13-0 record, marking the fourth straight season and the sixth time in seven years for SFA to post double-digit wins at home.
-- SFA --
