Stephen F. Austin
St. Edward's
'Jacks Host St. Edward's in 2017-18 William R. Johnson Coliseum Debut
11/14/2017 5:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SFA tangles with Hilltoppers for first time since 1995
Stephen F. Austin (1-0) vs. St. Edward's (2-0)
Wednesday, Nov. 15 | 7:00 p.m. | William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,203) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN) | Listen (Q107.7) | SFA Game Notes
THE STARTING FIVE
• Back in the building that has helped the Stephen F. Austin men's basketball team construct the nation's second-best home court winning percentage since the start of 2012-13, SFA welcomes NCAA Division II and Heartland Conference adversary St. Edward's to William R. Johnson Coliseum for a 7:00 p.m. non-conference showdown Wednesday night.
• The series between the 'Jacks and Hilltoppers has lain dormant since SFA drilled St. Edward's 99-76 back on Nov. 26, 1995, in Nacogdoches. SFA is 16-3 against the Hilltoppers in Nacogdoches since the series got going in 1925 with a 33-31 SFA victory.
• While the game will not officially count for St. Edward's as it is an exhibition contest, it's a real game for the 'Jacks who start a grueling stretch of three-straight home games against non-NCAA Division I competition.
• SFA is coming off a 74-61 season-opening triumph at Farmville, Va., against Longwood last Saturday afternoon which was SFA's first win in a season-opener since the 2014-15 season. Additionally, the win was the first for SFA over an NCAA Division I opponent in a season opener since the 2011-12 campaign and the first win in a season opener by SFA head coach Kyle Keller.
• Since the start of 2012-13, SFA has posted an impressive 71-3 record inside William R. Johnson Coliseum, good for an overall winning percentage of .959. Only Kansas possesses a better home-court winning percentage over that same time period.
• The last NCAA Division II adversary to pay a visit to William R. Johnson Coliseum put quite a scare into the SFA faithful as Northeastern State played the 'Jacks to a five-point result. It was then-junior Ivan Canete's layup in the closing minute that gave SFA the breathing room it needed to escape with a 75-70 triumph.
• With nearly one full week of the 2017-18 men's basketball season in the books, SFA is one of just five Southland Conference teams who have not lost a game. SFA joins Lamar, Nicholls, Sam Houston State and Incarnate Word in that category.
SCOUTING ST. EDWARD'S | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Although Wednesday's night's showdown is listed as an exhibition game for St. Edward's, that won't limit the Hilltoppers from throwing their best at the 'Jacks. Dallas, Texas, product Landon Goesling has started the season on a tear by averaging 25.5 points per game. Goesling, a former Appalachian State Mountaineer, is shooting 47.1-percent from the field, 41.7-percent from three-point range and 93.3-percent from the foul line.
• To say that Sean Phillips - St. Edward's second-leading scorer - has enjoyed a hot start to the 2017-18 season would be a bit of an understatement. Phillips, who is averaging 14.5 points per game, is shooting an impressive 62.5-percent (10-of-16) from the field which includes an enviable 9-of-15 (60-percent) showing from beyond the arc.
• Through two games, the offensive numbers put up by St. Edward's are some of the best at the NCAA Division II level. The Hilltoppers' team scoring average of 90 points per game is the 20th-best in the nation while their 12 three-pointers per game represents the 21st-best average nationally.
• While shutting down the Hilltoppers' high-scoring duo of Landon Goesling and Sean Phillips is important, perhaps the most important player to St. Edward's success is senior guard Sean Watkins. The director of the Hilltoppers' offense, Watkins leads the team and ranks among the top 15 in NCAA Division II in assist-to-turnover ratio (second, 12.00), total steals (13th, seven) and steals per game (11th, 3.50). Watkins has dished out 12 of the team's 37 assists and has turned the ball over just once in 26.5 minutes per game.
• In the preseason poll for the nine-team Heartland Conference which was released in the middle of October, St. Edward's was chosen to finish seventh. The Hilltoppers gathered up 64 total votes to finish ahead of Newman and Oklahoma Christian. Twelve of the 18 first-place votes in the preseason poll went to Arkansas-Fort Smith who was picked to win the league title. Arkansas-Fort Smith shares a tie to SFA as assistant head coach Jeremy Cox coached at the institution from 2002-06 during its last season as an NAIA institution.
LAST TIME OUT
• For the first time since the 2014-15 campaign, the Stephen F. Austin men's basketball emerged victorious in a season opener by starting the game on a 15-3 run en route to a 74-61 triumph over Longwood in Farmvile, Va., on Veterans Day. The win helped SFA head coach Kyle Keller move to 1-1 in season openers as SFA's bench boss.
• Heading into Saturday's season opener in Farmville, Va., SFA had not led in a game since March 9, 2017, in the Southland Conference Tournament quarterfinals against Lamar in Katy, Texas. That changed as SFA never trailed in their second-ever meeting with the Lancers inside Willett Hall and it also marked the first time the 'Jacks never trailed in a game since they defeated Southland Conference and Piney Woods adversary Sam Houston State 64-56 inside William R. Johnson Coliseum on March 4, 2017.
• Sophomore point guard Aaron Augustin adjusted nicely to his new role as the team's floor leader by dishing out a game and career-best eight assists in the win. Augustin's eight helpers are tied for the most by a player in the Kyle Keller coaching era as Ivan Canete dished out eight in an overtime win over Central Arkansas on Feb. 25, 2017.
• Both Augustin and junior TJ Holyfield finished with four of the 'Jacks' 13 steals. Those 13 steals were the most in a single game in the Kyle Keller coaching era and the most by SFA since the squad recorded 16 against then-No. 8-ranked West Virginia in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
• The biggest storyline of SFA's season opener was, unquestionably, the career effort put forth by sophomore Kevon Harris. A product of Ellenwood, Ga., Harris established a number of new career highs by springing for 23 points and completing his second double-double as a collegiate player with 12 rebounds. Both of those aforementioned figures represented new career bests for Harris who also went 11-of-14 from the free throw line. Harris accounted for 61.1-percent of SFA's scoring from the charity stripe and 31.2-percent of the 'Jacks' point total.
• Harris' 20-point 10-rebound game was the first such outing by an SFA player since March 2, 2017, when then-sophomore TJ Holyfield went for 21 points and a career-best 16 rebounds in a Southland Conference home setback to Northwestern State.
• Holyfield, who extended his streak of consecutive starts in an SFA uniform to 67-straight, drilled a career-high four three-pointers en route to an 18-point outing. The junior out of Albuquerque, N.M., also added a pair of blocked shots which upped his career total to 91. Holyfield now needs only nine more rejections to become the third player in program history with 100 or more blocked shots to his credit.
• Playing in his first game in an SFA uniform, junior Shannon Bogues dropped in 15 points on the strength of 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Those 15 points came in an effort off of the bench and represented the highest scoring total by an SFA bench player since then-freshman Kevon Harris slung in 15 in 18 minutes of action in a Southland Conference home victory over Lamar on Feb. 16, 2017.
• SFA's dominance over teams from the state of Virginia continued with the team's win Saturday afternoon. The 'Jacks upped their all-time record against Longwood to a perfect 4-0 and are now the owners of a 7-0 all-time record against teams from that particular state.
KEYED UP
• All sophomore Kevon Harris did to celebrate his inaugural week as a second-year man for the 'Jacks was go for 23 points and 12 rebounds in the team's season-opening victory at Longwood. That outing helped the Ellenwood, Ga., product claim the title of Southland Conference Player of the Week.
• The weekly honor from the league represents not only the first one in the career of Harris but the first for SFA since the 2015-16 season. On March 6, 2016, then-senior Thomas Walkup claimed the league's final Player of the Week award after torching Piney Woods rival Sam Houston State for a career-high 38 points to help SFA put the wraps on a perfect 18-0 run through the Southland Conference.
• As of this writing, Harris leads the Southland Conference in scoring and is tied for second in terms of rebounding.
SWISHING...
• After putting in a career-high four three-pointers in the 'Jacks' season-opening win at Longwood, junior TJ Holyfield leads the Southland Conference in terms of three-point shooting.
• The Albuquerque, N.M., product is firing at a rate of 66.7-percent (4-of-6) from three point range through the opening weekend of the season.
AND DISHING...
• Returns are rather early, but through the opening week of the college basketball season sophomore guard Aaron Augustin owns the best assists per game average in the Southland Conference and the 17th-highest average among all NCAA Division I men's basketball players.
• Augustin's eight assists against Longwood were a career high and are the fourth-most among all Southland Conference players headed into week two of the regular season.
COMING UP NEXT
• In their second home test of the 2017-18 campaign, the 'Jacks' finish off their stretch of two games in two nights when NCAA Division III adversary LeTourneau comes to William R. Johnson Coliseum Thursday evening. The Yellowjackets are not to be taken lightly, either, as they handed NCAA Division I member Northwestern State a 99-74 loss in Natchitoches, La., on Sunday night.
-SFA-
