Stephen F. Austin
Rice
'Jacks Face Second-Straight C-USA Foe as Rice Comes to Town
12/8/2017 3:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SFA tangles with Rice in Nacogdoches for first time since 2001
Stephen F. Austin (8-1) vs. Rice (2-6)
Saturday, Dec. 9 | 2:00 p.m. | William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,203) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3/ESPN app) | Listen (Q107.7/TuneIn) | SFA Game Notes | Rice Game Notes
OPENING TIPS
• Saturday afternoon, the Stephen F. Austin men's basketball team rolls out the proverbial welcome mat for Rice for the first time in 16 years as the 'Jacks and Owls are set to duke it out inside William R. Johnson Coliseum at 2:00 p.m.
• Each and every second of the action between SFA and Rice can be seen nationwide on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with longtime Lumberjack men's basketball play-by-play man Rob Meyers handling call. Meyers' call of the C-USA/Southland clash can also be heard over the airwaves on Q107.7 FM in Nacogdoches and nationwide via TuneIn.com or the TuneIn app.
• The showdown between the Owls and 'Jacks represents the 151st game between SFA and a member of Conference USA. All-time, the 'Jacks have gone 73-77 (.486) against adversaries from that 14-team league. Second-year SFA head coach Kyle Keller has produced a 2-2 (.500) record against C-USA programs in his tenure in Nacogdoches.
• Once they hit the floor against the Owls, SFA aims to continue its best start to a season since 2012-13. That year, the 'Jacks won 16 of their first 17 games en route to a final mark of 27-5.
• The last three times Rice has come to Nacogdoches, it has not departed the city with a win. SFA leads the all-time series history 11-7 and holds a 7-1 record against the Owls in Nacogdoches. The last time Rice came to town, SFA made all the right moves in overtime to walk away with a 90-86 victory on Nov. 27, 2001.
• Through the course of the past 48 hours, SFA's RPI ranking has taken a significant jump as a result of its win at Louisiana Tech Wednesday night. Heading into their tilt with the Bulldogs in Ruston, the 'Jacks' RPI sat at 135. Currently, it stands at 61 - the highest of any Southland Conference team. The last time SFA had an RPI above 65 was at the end of the 2014-15 season when it came in at 35.
• Since the start of the 2017-18 season, SFA has added six more wins inside William R. Johnson Coliseum, pushing their record in that facility since 2012-13 to an impressive 77-3. That works out to a winning percentage of .962 - the second-highest in the nation in that span.
SCOUTING RICE (2-6) | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• With a roster featuring seven newcomers, the Owls have had to lean on their top returner - Connor Cashaw - to shoulder a big part of the load on offense. The junior has answered the call, too, as he leads Rice in scoring at 15 points per game. Cashaw is shooting .337/.317/.722 and is one of three Owls who are averaging 10 or more points.
• Over one-third - 35.4-percent to be exact - of Rice's assists have come from sophomore guard Ako Adams. The Washington, D.C., product leads the team and ranks eighth among all C-USA players with an assists per game average of 4.3. In addition to facilitating the Owls' offense, Adams is scoring points at a rate of 10.5 per game.
• Rice has done an excellent job at shutting off its opponents' effectiveness from beyond the arc thus far in 2017-18. The Owls' foes are hitting just 28.5-percent of their three-point field goal tries, giving Rice the best three-point field goal percentage defense in Conference USA and the 56th-best in all of NCAA Division I men's basketball.
• The most dangerous long-range threat on the Owls' roster is without a doubt A.J. Lapray. A sharp-shooting grad student from Salem, Ore., Lapray is connecting on 44.4-percent (20-of-45) of his downtown tries throughout 2017-18 thus far. As a result of that, Lapray ranks second on the team in scoring at 11.1 points per game.
• The Owls' lone road win of the season occurred in Natchitoches, La., when they drilled Northwestern State 87-65. Cashaw had a career night in the victory, going for 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting and as a squad Rice connected on 50-percent (11-of-22) of its three-pointers. It marked head coach Scott Pera's first victory as Rice's bench boss, too.
• A total of 65 years have gone by since Rice was able to win a game in Nacogdoches. The Owls last win in SFA's home city on December 23, 1952, by a final score of 87-66.
LAST TIME OUT
• For the second-straight game, things went down to the wire for SFA and for the second-straight game the 'Jacks pulled out a thrilling victory. Kevon Harris converted a right-handed layup with less than five seconds to go and Louisiana Tech's last-second three-point try barely drew iron as SFA emerged with an 85-83 win over Louisiana Tech Wednesday night in Ruston, La.
• The win was a rarity, too, as Louisiana Tech entered Wednesday night's game armed with a home court record of 79-4 (.952 winning percentage) since the start of the 2012-13 season. SFA joined Florida Gulf Coast, Louisiana, Old Dominion and UTSA as the only teams to defeat the Bulldogs on the floor of the Thomas Assembly Center in that span. Louisiana Tech's five home losses since 2012-13 have come by a total of 16 points.
• Heading into the game, Louisiana Tech's RPI sat at 20, and by the time the final horn sounded SFA had succeeded in scoring a win over a top-20 RPI team for the first time since defeating West Virginia in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
• Putting on an offensive clinic, Harris finished with 25 points - one shy of his career high - and shot 10-of-11 from the field. Those 10 field goal makes were a career-high for the Ellenwood, Ga., product and were highlighted by a 3-of-3 showing from three-point land. With his high-scoring outing, Harris has now been responsible for three of the eight 20-point outings by various SFA players this season.
• In order to put Wednesday's game in the win column, SFA had to overcome a sparkling offensive performance by Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs connected on 68.8-percent (11-of-16) of their three-point field goal tries and hit 22 of their 26 free throws (84.6-percent). Once the final horn sounded, Louisiana Tech had hit four more three-pointers and attempted 12 more free throws than the 'Jacks.
• At one point in the second half, SFA trailed by as many as seven points after Jacobi Boykins capped a 16-0 Louisiana Tech run that spanned the first and second halves with a one-handed dunk.
• Down 75-70 with 4:47 to go, the 'Jacks went on an 11-2 run to take an 81-77 lead with 1:11 left. Some of the biggest plays during that stretch came courtesy of senior Ty Charles who dished to Harris for a wide-open three-pointer and converted a contested fast-break layup to end the run. With 29 seconds to go and SFA clinging to an 81-80 lead, Charles corralled a crucial offensive rebound and hit two free throws for a three-point cushion.
• Boykins hit a game-tying three-pointer with 17 seconds left for Louisiana Tech before Harris answered with his eventual game-winning layup. That three-pointer accounted for the 13th and final deadlock of the night.
• After being held scoreless against Louisiana-Monroe, senior Ivan Canete put in 14 points in the win over Louisiana Tech.
• Sophomore Nathan Bain checked into a basketball game for the first time in over a year during Wednesday night's win. Sidelined by variety of injuries (leg, back) since Nov. 18, 2016, the Freeport, Bahamas, product put in two points and added an assist and a steal in nine minutes.
• With the win, SFA pushed its record against foes from the state of Louisiana to 28-4 (.875) since 2012-13.
STEEL STEAL CITY
• 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 115 steals - the second-highest total in the nation as of this writing.
• 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 five players are averaging at least 1.56 steals per game for SFA led by sophomore guard Aaron Augustin and his 2.56 per tilt.
• When stacked up against all NCAA Division I men's basketball players, Augustin ranks 14th in terms of swindles per game and 13th with his total of 23 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)
Aaron Augustin | 23 (13) | 2.56 (14)
TJ Holyfield | 18 (55) | 2 (70)
Ivan Canete | 17 (74) | 1.89 (100)
Shannon Bogues | 16 (104) | 1.78 (132)
John Comeaux | 14 (178) | 1.56 (233)
Kevon Harris | 13 (236) | 1.44 (n/a)
THROWAWAY KINGS
• Only one NCAA Division I men's basketball program - Portland State - is forcing more turnovers by their opponents than the 'Jacks are through 2017-18 so far.
• SFA leads the Southland Conference and ranks second nationally by forcing 23.22 turnovers per game. Portland State leads the nation by forcing 23.78 opponent throwaways per game.
POLL POSITION
• In the latest edition of the Mid-Major Top 25 poll, SFA is just a few votes away from entering the top 25.
• SFA gathered 50 votes in the latest poll and is one of two Southland Conference schools to receive votes in the latest edition of the poll.
COMING UP NEXT
• After taking a break of exactly one week to focus on final exams, the 'Jacks hit the road for a two-game swing in SEC country. Saturday, Dec. 16, SFA pays a visit to LSU for the first time in program history. Tip-off between the 'Jacks and Tigers is set for noon on the SEC Network.
