Stephen F. Austin
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Mississippi State
Undefeated Squads Clash in Starkville as 'Jacks Battle Mississippi State
11/21/2017 2:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SFA heads east in search of its first win over a current SEC member since 1970
rv/-- Stephen F. Austin (4-0) at Mississippi State (2-0)
Wednesday, Nov. 22 | 7:00 p.m. | Humphrey Coliseum (10,500) | Starkville, Miss.
Live Stats | Watch (SEC Network+) | Listen (Q107.7/TuneIn) | SFA Game Notes | MSU Game Notes
THE OPENING TIP
• Two of the remaining 77 undefeated NCAA Division I men's basketball teams are set to do battle Thursday night when Stephen F. Austin heads to Starkville, Miss., for a first-ever showdown with SEC adversary Mississippi State. Tip-off inside Humphrey Coliseum has been slated for 7:00 p.m. with each and every second of the game - SFA's first of three against SEC opposition in 2017-18 - set to be broadcast on SEC Network+. Bart Gregory and Matt Wyatt will handle play-by-play and analysis duties on SEC Network+ while Rob Meyers will set up show beside the 'Jacks' bench in Humphrey Coliseum to deliver play-by-play and analysis over the airwaves on Q107.7 FM in Nacogdoches, Texas, and via the TuneIn app.
• The 'Jacks enter Wednesday night's tilt on the receiving end of one vote in the latest edition of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Along with Belmont and Rhode Island, SFA is one of three institutions from around the nation who earned a single vote and SFA's appearance in the poll is its first since the week of March 13, 2016.
• Almost a half-century has elapsed since the 'Jacks have secured a victory against a current member of the SEC. All-time, SFA is 3-25 (.107) against and the last time the squad posted a win over a current SEC member came on Dec. 1, 1970, when it claimed an 89-82 win over Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.
• One of the best weapons the 'Jacks have in their arsenal as they prepare for tangle with the Bulldogs is their defense. SFA leads the nation in both total steals (65) and turnovers forced per game (26.75). In terms of steals per game, SFA and Youngstown State are tied for the best average in the nation with a mark of 16.3
• Through their first four games of the season, SFA has shown little to no interest of missing shots. As a team, the 'Jacks are shooting 54-percent from the field - a figure that leads the 13-team Southland Conference and ranks 13th among all NCAA Division I men's basketball teams.
• Once tip-off occurs Wednesday night, SFA will have faced four of the six NCAA Division I programs in the state of Mississippi. All-time, the 'Jacks have posted a record of 10-3 (.769) against DI foes from the Magnolia State and all three of SFA's setbacks have come at the hands of Jackson State.
LAST TIME OUT
• Not since Nov. 25, 1996 - almost 21 years ago - had SFA posted a point total like the one they did in a 118-64 walloping of NCAA Division III adversary Howard Payne inside William R. Johnson Coliseum last Saturday afternoon. The 'Jacks' 118 points were the most in a single game since they blasted Schreiner 138-69 inside the same facility on the aforementioned date.
• The win - SFA's fourth in a row - continued the 'Jacks' best start since the 2012-13. In that season, SFA won its first five games and 15 of its first 16 en route to a regular season Southland Conference title as well as a berth in the NIT.
• For the game, SFA connected on 59.2-percent of its field goal tries. That percentage was both a season-high and the best in a single game in the Kyle Keller coaching era.
• Individually, the performances of juniors Shannon Bogues and TJ Holyfield helped the 'Jacks get the job done. Bogues, who hails from Killeen, Texas, put in a game and career-high 30 points to become the first SFA player to rack up 30 or more in a game since Thomas Walkup hung 33 on then-No. 8-ranked West Virginia in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
• Holyfield, meanwhile, reset his career-high as well, going for 25 points on a 9-of-11 performance from the field. The Albuquerque, N.M., native hit all seven of his free throw attempts and reset his career high with five steals. Holyfield missed out on a double-double by just one rebound as well after finishing with a game-high nine.
• Another SFA player who narrowly missed a double-double was senior Ivan Canete who enjoyed his finest game of the 2017-18 campaign. Canete slung in 12 points while dishing out a career-best nine assists - the most in a game by an SFA player since Thomas Walkup amassed 10 as part of a triple-double effort at Incarnate Word on Feb. 29, 2016. The Lake Worth, Fla., product also came up with six steals to tie his personal best.
• SFA had little to no difficulty generating turnovers against Howard Payne as the 'Jacks forced 38 throwaways - the most by an SFA opponent in over a decade. Of those 38 turnovers, 20 came as a result of steals from SFA to mark the most thefts in a game by the 'Jacks the team amassed 21 against Elmhurst on Dec. 21, 2013.
• Howard Payne managed to keep things somewhat close throughout the first half until the 'Jacks put a good amount of distance between them and the Yellow Jackets. Through the final 3:33 of the opening half, SFA went on a 17-0 scoring run to up its lead from 11 points all the way to 28 at the break.
• When the dust had settled, the 'Jacks' found themselves the winners by a 54-point margin. That margin of victory was the first by 50 or more points by SFA since Jan. 13, 2015, when the 'Jacks' went to Conway, Ark., and waxed Southland Conference adversary Central Arkansas by a 109-58 tally.
• For the second time in its first four games of the season, SFA enjoyed a points in the paint advantage of 40 or more points. The 'Jacks racked up 60 points - just over half of their total for the game - on the interior and finished with a +44 mark over Howard Payne in the points in the paint category.
•In all, five SFA players posted 12 or more points in the win, marking the first time since Feb. 25, 2016, that the 'Jacks had five players finish with double-digits. That game was a 90-85 overtime victory at Southland Conference foe Central Arkansas.
SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Off to its first 3-0 start since the 2014-15 season, Mississippi State has been getting the job done by employing a balanced offensive attack. Six Bulldogs are averaging at least 10 points per game and none of those double-digit scoring averages exceed 12.3 per game.
• Through the Bulldogs' first three games, Lamar Peters has been the most consistent performer. The second-year man out of New Orleans, La., leads the team in scoring at 12.3 points per game and is also tops among the Bulldogs ranks in both assists (14, 4.7/game) and steals (eight, 2.7/game).
• Four Bulldogs stand at least 6-10, giving Mississippi State a fearsome defensive presence on the interior. The Bulldogs lead the SEC and rank seventh nationally with 7.7 blocked shots per game with Abdul Ado (five blocks, 2.5/game) and Schnider Herard (six blocks, three/game) leading the way in that category.
• So far, opponents of the Bulldogs have found putting the ball in the basket to be a difficult task. Mississippi State boasts an SEC-best field goal percentage defense of .346 which also ranks as the 22nd-best in the nation.
• Another area where the Bulldogs' defense has excelled through the early stages of 2017-18 is in terms of turnovers forced. Mississippi State ranks 15th nationally by forcing an average of 20 turnovers per game. That average is the best in the SEC.
• When the ball is tipped Wednesday night in Starkville, Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland will be attempting to pick up his second victory over SFA. Howland has faced the 'Jacks twice before in his head coaching career with both of those instances coming just about two decades ago. As the head coach at Northern Arizona in the late 1990s, Howland dropped a 72-70 decision to the 'Jacks in Nacogdoches on Nov. 19, 1997, before picking up a 96-59 victory over SFA on Nov. 24, 1998.
THREE OF A KIND
• A high percentage - 62.6 to be precise - of the 'Jacks' 2017-18 point total has come from a trio of players - junior Shannon Bogues and TJ Holyfield as well as sophomore Kevon Harris.
• Each member of that trio is averaging at least 18 points per game, giving SFA three of the top 10 highest scorers in the Southland Conference. Harris leads the way with an average of 20.3 points per game while Bogues and Holyfield are just behind at 19.3 and 18.8 points per game respectively.
• Best of all is the fact that neither of those three are shooting below 50-percent from the field in order to post those scoring averages. Harris' field goal percentage of 51.1 is the lowest of the bunch while Holyfield's mark of 63.6 leads the team and ranks fourth in the Southland Conference. Bogues is connecting on 62.7-percent of his field goal tries to rank fifth in the 13-team Southland.
• Bogues is unique in the fact that his points have come exclusively off of the bench, giving the 'Jacks a formidable scoring punch as part of its second wave. In all, 42.5-percent (158 of 372) of the 'Jacks' 2017-18 point total has been accounted for by their bench.
ACROSS THE BOARD
• The sample size is still small after having played only four games so far throughout 2017-18, but the rebounding of the 'Jacks has helped the team get off to its best start since 2012-13.
• SFA has posted a double-digit rebounding edge over each of its four opponents this season and currently leads the Southland Conference while ranking ninth nationally with a rebounding margin of +15.8.
• Sophomore Kevon Harris has played a big role on the glass for the 'Jacks as he leads the Southland Conference in total rebounds with 35. The Ellenwood, Ga., product has used his rebounding prowess to produce a pair of double-doubles through the first four games of his season season of collegiate basketball. His two double-doubles lead the Southland and rank 23rd nationally.
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE
• Receiving 21.8-percent of its points from the free throw line thus far in 2017-18, the 'Jacks have made it a point to get to the stripe early and often.
• SFA leads the Southland Conference and ranks among the top 40 nationally in terms of both free throw attempts (110, 40th in nation) and free throws made (81, 32nd in nation).
• Individually, nearly one-third of the 'Jacks' total number of free throw tries have come courtesy of sophomore Kevon Harris. The second-year man leads the 13-team Southland Conference in both free throw attempts (36) and free throws made (27) while ranking 20th and 27th nationally in each of those respective categories.
PAINT A PICTURE
• Not needing to venture out beyond the three-point arc on too many occasions, the 'Jacks have scored a whopping 54.8-percent of their points in the painted are through 2017-18 thus far.
• SFA has outscored its opponents 204-80 in the painted area over its first four games to average a points in the paint differential of +31 in 2017-18.
GET IN FRONT, STAY IN FRONT
• Through four games, the 'Jacks have trailed for just 3:01, or 3.1-percent of their 160 total minutes of game action in the 2017-18 season.
NO BEGGING, NO BORROWING, JUST STEALING
• Keeping the same high-pressure defense utilized by the program over the years, SFA has taken it to another level in the opening stages of the 2017-18 season by racking up a nation-leading 65 steals through its first four games.
• It hasn't just been one or two players that have helped the 'Jacks catapult to the top of the national leaderboard in terms of thefts, either. An impressive six players are averaging at least 1.74 steals per game for SFA led by junior forward TJ Holyfield and his 3.5 per tilt.
• When stacked up against all NCAA Division I men's basketball players, Holyfield ranks fifth in terms of swindles per game and fourth with his total of 14 thefts. The full contingent of 'Jacks who are among the nation's leaders in total steals and steals per game are below
Player | Total Steals (NCAA rank) | Steals/Game (NCAA rank)
TJ Holyfield | 14 (2) | 3.5 (5)
Aaron Augustin | 11 (24) | 2.75 (26)
Ivan Canete | 11 (24) | 2.75 (26)
John Comeaux | 9 (55) | 2.25 (80)
Kevon Harris | 9 (55) | 2.25 (80)
Shannon Bogues | 7 (149) | 1.75 (183)
COMING UP NEXT
• Returning to the familiar walls of William R. Johnson Coliseum, the 'Jacks begin another stretch of three-straight home games on Sunday afternoon when they host first-time opponent Florida A&M at 2:00 p.m. Each of the 'Jacks' next three opponents are from different states (Florida, North Dakota and Louisiana) as well as different conferences (MEAC, Summit League, Sun Belt).
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