Lumberjack Game Notes: vs Wiley College
11/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2011
GAME TIME: Just days after going on the road and upsetting Conference USA’s UTEP, the Lumberjacks return home for just their second home game of the season on Wednesday when they take on Wiley College at 7:00 p.m. at William R. Johnson Coliseum. SFA will host three of its next four games overall, including next week’s Etech Lumberjack Classic with Florida International, Alabama State and Texas Wesleyan coming to town.
LAST GAME: SFA held UTEP to its lowest point total on its home floor since opening the Don Haskins Center in 1976 on Saturday in taking a convincing 53-35 win over the Miners. Antonio Bostic had 18 points and Jereal Scott had 17 while SFA posted its second lowest opponent point total since becoming Division I entering the 1986-87 season, and its lowest versus a Division I opponent in that time.
THE WILDCATS: Wiley will be taking on its first Division I opponent of the season after having split its first six games of the 2011-12 season. The Wildcats have averaged better than 80 points per game, but are coming off a 115-86 loss to Our Lady of the Lake on Monday. They have already split a pair of games with Xavier (La.) and taken two wins over Philander Smith, who has a road win at another Southland Conference school, Central Arkansas.
vs. WILEY: SFA is 2-0 all-time against the Wildcats, with both wins coming during Danny Kaspar’s tenure as head coach. The teams most recently met last season with SFA taking a 86-49 win behind 16 points from Brandon Cutler. The ‘Jacks also registered a 29-point win in the team’s initial meeting in the 2007-08 season, with both games coming in Nacogdoches.
COVERAGE: Sunday’s game will be aired live on the airwaves via KTBQ Q107.7 FM in the Nacogdoches area with Rob Meyers on the call. Pregame begins approximately 15 minutes prior to tipoff. The game will also be streamed live via www.sfajacks.com
UP NEXT: The ‘Jacks head West again for a meeting with Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday at Reed Arena before returning home to host the Etech Lumberjack Classic.
BURYING THE MINERS: The Lumberjacks held UTEP to just 35 points in a 53-35 win on Saturday in El Paso. It was the lowest point total for UTEP at home since the Don Haskins Center opened in 1976, eclipsing its previous low of 41 set in 1980. The 35 points was also the lowest opponent point total for SFA vs a Division I team since becoming Division I itself entering the 1986-87 season, and the second-lowest opponent total overall in the Danny Kaspar era, falling just short of the 33 points allowed to Huston-Tillotson in 2007-08.
KASPAR GETS 200: Danny Kaspar closed out the 2010-11 season just one win shy of 200 for his career at Stephen F. Austin, but it did not take him long to register that win this year as the ‘Jacks got him the win in front of a home crowd with a season-opening, 84-43, win on Friday vs Centenary. He is already third all-time at SFA in head coaching wins, trailing only Marshall Brown (345) and Bob Shelton (245).
BOUNCING BACK: SFA is now 8-3 over the last two seasons in games following a loss. Over the last four seasons, the ’Jacks are 19-0 in home games following defeats. The last time SFA dropped two straight games with the second loss coming at home was the 2006-07 season, when the ’Jacks fell at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, then lost at home to UTSA in the regular-season finale.
CAN’T PUT OUT THE FIRE: The Texas Tech Red Raiders were red hot from the field in Lubbock, especially in the first half. The ‘Jacks had trouble slowing them down as Tech hit 14 of 17 shots (82.4) percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes. It was just the third time since 2006-07 that SFA has allowed a team to shoot at least 70 percent in a single half, while the Red Raider’s 62.9 shooting percentage for the game was the highest allowed by an SFA squad since North Texas shot 65.9 percent from the field on Dec. 6, 2006.
NOT ACCEPTING CHARITY: SFA has not been taking advantage of the free throw line through three games, hitting just 57.6 percent of its shots from the stripe, not hitting better than 57.9 percent in each of its last three games; however, logic says that number should go up as SFA has never shot lower than in the 2001-02 season when it was a 63.1-percent team from the free-throw line in the Divsion I era (beginning in 1988-88). In all, SFA has shot a solid 68.9 percent from the foul line in the 12 years of the Danny Kaspar era.
BELOW FIFTY: SFA held 10 opponents below 50 points last season, and has already held a pair of teams under 50 in four games this year, beginning the year by holding Centenary to just 43 points and holding UTEP to 35 on Saturday in El Paso. In 12 seasons under Danny Kaspar the Lumberjacks have held an opponent to 50 points or fewer on 54 occasions, losing just five of those games.
SAFE AT HOME: In 11-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled a 128-32 (.800) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum. SFA is 324-123 (.725) all-time in the Coliseum. SFA has recorded six straight seasons and eight campaigns in nine years with double-digit wins at home.
HOME NON-CONFERENCE: After its season-opening win over Centenary and putting together an 8-0 pre-conference record at home last year, SFA has now won 29 of its last 30 home, non-conference games, dating to the 2006-07 season. The only loss during that stretch is a two-point defeat against Texas Tech in 2009-10. The Lumberjacks are 58-4, overall, in home, non-conference games in 12 seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar.
HOME DEFENSE: SFA held its opponents to 50 points or fewer in nine of 16 games at home last season, and allowed just 51.6 points per game at home in 2010-11. SFA opened up 2011-12 on a good note as well, holding Centenary to just 43 points in Nacogdoches.
DEFENSE FIRST: The Lumberjacks led the nation in scoring defense at 56.7 points per game allowed in 2010-11. SFA has finished the year ranked among the top 10 in scoring defense in each of the last four seasons, including No. 2 rankings in 2008 and 2009. The best defensive season by a Lumberjack team in the Division I era was 2008-09, when SFA held the opposition to 56.1 points per game. Through four games this year, SFA is already near the top of the national list, ranking seventh in the country with a 52.7 ppg allowed average.
HITTING THE BREAKS: The ‘Jacks avoided its first three-game losing streak in non-conference play since the 2004-05 season with Saturday's win at UTEP. That year SFA dropped consecutive road games to Grambling and Alabama A&M before falling in a four-point contest at home to Jackson State.
BOOM BOSTIC: Antonio Bostic never bucketed more than 15 points in a game during his sophomore year, but did manage to hit double figures eight times. This year, however, he has been SFA’s go-to hand offensively through four games, and currently stands third in the SLC with a 16.5-ppg average. After raising his career high in each of the first two games of the year, including a 22-point effort at San Diego, Bostic had 10 points in the loss at Texas Tech to put him in double-figures in three consecutive games for the first time in his career, and followed that with an 18-point night in Saturday's win at UTEP. He is the only ‘Jack with multiple double-digit scoring efforts so far this season.
SCOTT NEARING 1K: After a junior season where he scored 13.3 points per game and hit a school-record 60 percent of his shots from the floor, Jereal Scott has positioned himself well for a senior season that could leave his name sprinkled throughout the SFA record book. He opened the season with an 18-point, six-rebound outing against Centenary and now four games into his senior year needs just 112 more points to become just the eighth Lumberjack with 1,000 points in a career in the Division I era after his 17-point outing at UTEP.
START ME UP: The Lumberjacks saw a pair of freshmen get action in Friday’s season-opener vs Centenary in guard Micah Delph and forward Jacob Parker; however, it was the 6-6 Parker that, despite a stat line that did not sparkle, turned the most heads. Parker found himself on the floor at the opening tip, making him the first Lumberjack freshman since Marcus Clark in 2002 to be in the starting lineup for the season opener.
JUCO CONNECTION: The ‘Jacks have managed to develop a recruiting pipeline to two successful junior colleges in recent years, and those recruiting dividends are evident once again on this year’s roster. Joe Bright joins former Lumberjacks Denzel Barnes and Benson Akpan as transfers from Howard College since 2007-08, while Taylor Smith is the fifth ‘Jack from McLennan CC since 2007, joining Jordan Glynn, Eric Bell, Eric Bell and Orren Tims in that category.
-SFA-
