Lumberjack Game Notes: at Lamar
2/21/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2012
Stephen F. Austin at Lamar
February 22, 2012 • 7:00 p.m. CT
Montagne Center (10,080) • Beaumont, Texas
Radio: Q107.7 FM • TV: None • Online: www.lamarcardinals.com
Lumberjacks
Record: 15-11 (8-4)
Last 5/Streak: 3-2/W1
Coach: Danny Kaspar
Career: 433-188
At SFA: 214-135
SID: Ben Rikard
E-mail: rikardbenja@sfasu.edu
Web: sfajacks.com
Cardinals
Record: 17-10 (8-4)
Last 5/Streak: 3-2/L1
Coach: Pat Knight
Career: 68-70
At LU: 17-10
SID: Erik Cox
E-mail: erik.cox@lamar.edu
Web: lamarcardinals.com
GAME TIME: In a battle of two teams deadlocked for third place in the Southland Conference, SFA will travel to Lamar on Wednesday for a game that could go a long way not only for bragging rights, but for seeding for the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament in Katy, Texas.
LAST GAME: Taylor Smith finished with 16 points and a career-high five blocks, including two key rejections in the final minute of the game as Stephen F. Austin withstood a second half rally from High Point to take a 69-62 win on Saturday at William R. Johnson Coliseum in a game that was part of the Sears Bracket Busters event. SFA held a narrow 28-24 lead on the Panthers at the half and led by as much as 11 in the second period before the HPU guard combo of Shay Shine and Nick Barbour went to work, cutting the SFA lead to just a point with 2:17 to play; however, SFA managed to clamp down defensively and held the Panthers scoreless for the final minutes of the game to hang on for the win. Barbour - the reigning Big South player of the year and leading scorer in the conference - and Shine combined for 44 of the Panthers’ 62 points, including 21 in the second half alone from Barbour. But SFA countered with four players in double figures, led by Smith’s 16 on a perfect 8-for-8 from the field.
THE CARDINALS: Lamar had won four in a row before dropping two of its last three, including its Bracket Busters matchup on Saturday at George Mason. The Cardinals trailed by as much as 17 points in the second half to the Patriots before rallying to take a one-point lead, eventually falling 75-71. Still, LU sports the third-highest scoring average of all SLC squads and has two of the five top scorers in the league in guards Mike James (16.2 ppg) and Anthony Miles (14.4 ppg).
vs. Lamar: The series between the ‘Jacks and Cardinals is tied at 24 apiece heading into Wednesday’s game with SFA having gone 9-7 vs LU during Danny Kaspar’s tenure as head coach.
COVERAGE: Wednesday’s game can be watched heard live on Q107.7 FM in the Nacogdoches/Lufkin area. Pregame begins approximately 15 minutes prior to tipoff with Rob Meyers calling the action.
UP NEXT: SFA returns home for two of its final three games of the season beginning Saturday when it tries to complete a season sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The ‘Jacks will then try and pick up a road win at Sam Houston State before closing out the regular season slate vs Northwestern State on March 3 in Nacogdoches.
SUB-SEVENTY: SFA has held each of its first 26 opponents under 70 points this season, setting a new school record for the longest streak of sub-70 defensive performances to open up a season. In fact, SFA is the only team remaining in the country to have not allowed 70 points in a game to a single opponent.
BOUNCING BACK: SFA is 14-6 over the last two seasons in games following a loss. Over the last five seasons, the ’Jacks are 25-0 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.
TAYLOR MADE: Junior post Taylor Smith went 8-for-8 in Saturday’s Bracket Buster win over High Point, staying atop the Southland with a league-leading field goal percentage of .716, with the next closest to him being Sam Houston’s Steven Werner, a former teammate of Smith at McLennan CC. No Lumberjack has led the Southland in field goal percentage since Ron Banks did so in 2001 (.593), while no player in the Southland has shot greater than 70 percent for the year since Nothwestern State’s Jethro Owens did so in 1991 (.714).
BOSTIC ASSISTS: SFA dished out 24 assists in its win over High Point on Saturday, with 10 of those coming from junior guard Antonio Bostic. The junior’s previous career high in assists was just five going into the game, and he became the first ‘Jack to hit double figures in assists since Eric Bell had 11 dimes in a win at Northern Illinois on Nov. 24, 2007. Bostic also totaled 11 points in his effort, giving him his first career double-double.
HALF WAY THERE: The ‘Jacks have not been the best at playing from behind this year, but have also been pretty solid when playing from out in front. That could not be more evident than the fact that the ‘Jacks are 14-1 this season when taking a lead into the half. Conversely, SFA is 1-10 when trailing at the half with its lone come-from-behind win being at Texas State to open league play. The only loss in that stretch came on Feb. 15 when it squandered a 13-point halftime lead to league-leading UT Arlington.
CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARDS: SFA may not have a single player in the Southland Conference top 10 in rebounding, with Taylor Smith’s 5.8 rebounds per game leading the team, but as a team no group has been better in the SLC on the boards than the ‘Jacks. SFA is tops in the SLC with a +7.0 rebound margin through 26 games with Lamar a distant second at +5.7, ranking SFA 11th in the nation in that category. Of SFA’s 26 opponents, only three have managed to pull down more rebounds than the ‘Jacks - most recently McNeese State in Sunday’s loss. It is the only time in 12 league games SFA had been outrebounded.
SAFE AT HOME: In 10-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled a 135-35 (.794) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum. SFA is 331-126 (.724) all-time in the Coliseum. Its win over High Point gave SFA ist 10th home victory this season, meaning SFA has now recorded seven straight seasons and nine campaigns in last 10 years with double-digit wins at home.
45-MINUTE MAN: In both of SFA’s overtime wins over Sam Houston State and Nicholls, junior guard Antonio Bostic was the only man on either squad to never see the sideline during the game. Bostic played all 45 minutes of each game, marking the most minutes played by any Lumberjack since Josh Alexander played all 55 minutes in a 112-111 SFA win over North Dakota State in triple OT in the 2008-09 season at the Drake Hy-Vee Classic. Bostic enters Wednesday’s game at Lamar having played every minute of three of SFA’s last four games, ranking fourth in the SLC with 33.4 minutes per game.
DISTANCE LEARNING: Despite ranking at the bottom of the SLC in 3-point shooting, the ‘Jacks have been better from distance since entering league play. SFA is shooting at a 31.5 percent clip, including hitting a season high eight triples on 17 tries in its win at UTSA.
BEAST AGAINST THE EAST: In five-plus years of divisional play in the Southland Conference, SFA has only lost one home game to a team from the Southland East Division. That was a 67-57 decision against Northwestern State in 2006-07, the first year of divisional action. Since then, the ’Jacks have reeled off 17 straight home wins against the East. SFA is 20-1 at home against East Division teams, and has a 32-8 overall mark against teams in that division.
A CAREER TO REMEMBER: Senior Jereal Scott is the lone member of SFA’s 2008 NCAA Tournament team on the roster, and as he reaches the end of his Lumberjack career it is easy to see that his name will be sprinkled throughout the record book when he is done. Scott recently eclipsed 1,100 points for his career and if he remains on his current pace will finish up in the top five all-time scorers in Division I history at SFA. He also needs just 17 more made free throws to become the 11th all-time at SFA with 300 for his career, a mark that he should reach by season’s end.
EXTRA SPECIAL: The ‘Jacks are now 2-0 in overtime games this season after knocking off Nicholls in OT, making SFA 6-1 in its last seven overtime games dating back through the 2008-09 season. Despite the extra five minutes, SFA was still able to hold the Colonels to just 58 points to mark the fourth time since the 1983-84 season that the ‘Jacks have held a team under 60 points in an overtime game.
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. In 13 games at home this year SFA is allowing just 54.1 points per game, including just 36 points to Southeastern Louisiana and UT-Tyler.
FIVE & DIMES: As part of SFA’s efficient night on the offensive end vs Texas State, the ‘Jacks also got plenty of help from multiple sources. That includes three ‘Jacks with at least five assists apiece as part of SFA’s 21 total assists against the ‘Cats. Hal Bateman (6), Antonio Bostic (5) and Darius Gardner (5) each had at least five assists, marking the first time an SFA team had three players with at least five dimes in the same game since Feb. 16 1998 when David Henry (6), Tysmon Jolivett (6) and Aaron Radl (5) pulled it off in a three-point loss to Nicholls
HOMEWRECKERS: The Lumberjacks may only have five wins away from Johnson Coliseum this season, but two of them have stung the opponent deeper than normal. SFA picked up its first road win at UTEP on Nov. 26 with a 53-35 verdict over the Miners, holding UTEP to its lowest point total at home since the school opened up the Don Haskins Center in 1976. Most recently, SFA went to San Marcos and stole a 66-65 win at Texas State, snapping the Bobcats’ 16-game home win streak, which spanned more than a calendar year and was one of the top 10 such streaks in the country.
HAL-UTATIONS: Hal Bateman had scored just four points on four free throws before the final minute of SFA’s win at Texas State, but the junior point guard hit three critical free throws to give SFA its first lead of the game with under a minute to go. Then, after the ‘Cats had retaken the lead, Bateman dribbled the length of the court to hit just his second three-point bucket of the season with 0.5 seconds remaining in the game for a one-point SFA win.
BATTLING BACK: SFA trailed 15-2 just minutes into its game at Texas State, and went into the locker room down 34-27 before battling back to take a 66-65 win at the buzzer. It was the first time this season that SFA has won a game when trailing at the half after previously being 0-7 when behind after 20 minutes of play.
LOW-BALLED: SFA held Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to just 49 points in it’s win over the Islanders, but it was the 46 points A&M-Corpus Christi put up in its win over SFAin 2011 that tied for the fewest points by a Lumberjack opponent in an SFA loss over the last 11 seasons. In 11 years under Danny Kaspar, the ’Jacks have held the opposition below 50 points 56 times and lost only five times.
LOW POINT: The 40 points SFA scored against Sam Houston State in last season’s match-up with the Bearkats set a Johnson Coliseum record for fewest points scored by the ’Jacks. The previous record was 41 in a 52-41 loss to Southeastern Louisiana in February of 1995.
KING FOR A NIGHT: After going a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and 5-for-7 from the foul line, Jonathan King finished SFA’s game at Central Arkansas with a career-high 19 points and also matched his season high with eight rebounds for the third time this year. It was a rare feat not only for King, but also SFA, as his night was the first time an SFA player had been perfect from the field with at least seven field goal tries in a game since Ben Hunt was a perfect 10-for-10 from the field at ULM on Jan. 5, 2002. Oddly enough, teammate Taylor Smith did him one better on Saturday vs High Point when he went a perfect 8-for-8 vs the Panthers.
CLAMPING DOWN: SFA held Southeastern Louisiana to just 36 points in its win over the Lions, holding its third opponent of the season under the 40-point mark. It was also the first time since 2008 that SFA has held a Southland opponent under the 40-point plateau, and is the lowest point total by a Southland opponent for the `Jacks in the Danny Kaspar era.
SOUTHLAND OPENERS: In Danny Kaspar’s 12 seasons at SFA, the ‘Jacks are now 6-6 in Southland Conference openers after knocking off Texas State. The ’Jacks had dropped three of their last four league-opening games and had lost five straight times when opening Southland play on the road. SFA is now 3-5 under Kaspar in Southland openers away from home. The last time a Lumberjack team had won a league-opening road game was a 2002-03 verdict at former Southland member ULM.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: Since the Southland Conference began divisional play in 2006-07, SFA has won three of a possible six division championships. The ’Jacks won the Southland West in 2008 and won the East Division title in 2009 and 2010.
CLAMPING DOWN: SFA returned to William R. Johnson Coliseum on Dec. 30 to take a 57-point win over UT-Tyler, holding the Patriots to just 36 points in the victory. The 36 points was the lowest for a Lumberjack opponent since SFA held ULM to 36 points last season, a mark that is the second-lowest defensive showing in the Danny Kaspar era and that was matched less than 10 days later when SFA held Southeastern Louisiana to just 36 points as well. The lowest in the era was when SFA held Huston-Tillotson to just 33 points during the 2007-08 season.
HI, MY NAME IS ____: SFA has just four returning players — including two starters — from last season. But with two of the four being sophomores, SFA has only six years of Division I basketball experience on the 2011-12 roster. That figure is tied for the fourth-fewest years of D-I experience in the nation.
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