Stephen F. Austin
Abilene Christian
SFA Returns Home for Pivotal Southland Showdown with Abilene Christian
1/22/2019 5:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball
'Jacks and Wildcats meet for 35th time Wednesday night
Game Eighteen
SFA (9-8, 2-3 Southland) vs. Abilene Christian (16-3, 5-1 Southland)
Wednesday, Jan. 23 | 6:30 p.m. | William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,203) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Tickets | Watch (ESPN+/ESPN app) | Listen (Q107.7/TuneIn) | Live Stats | SFA Game Notes | ACU Game Notes
Play-by-Play/Analysis | Rob Meyers
THE OPENING TIP
• Intent on gaining ground in the race for the Southland's top spot, the SFA men's basketball team returns home for a pivotal league showdown with in-state adversary Abilene Christian at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening. Tipton Ford serves as the sponsor for the first of two 2018-19 matchups between the two squads.
• ESPN+ and the ESPN app will carry a live video stream of the 35th all-time meeting between the 'Jacks and Wildcats with longtime Lumberjack play-by-play man Rob Meyers on the call. Q107.7 FM in Nacogdoches will carry Meyers' call as will the TuneIn app.
• With a win at Incarnate Word last Saturday, the 'Jacks put an end to their three-game Southland Conference losing skid. It was the program's longest league losing streak since the 2006-07 campaign.
• Shannon Bogues (17.2 ppg) and Kevon Harris (15.4 ppg) rank second and seventh respectively in the Southland in scoring.
• Harris is one of three players in the Southland who rank among the top ten in the league in both scoring and rebounding. The Ellenwood, Ga., product is seventh in the conference with a team-leading rebounding average of 6.6 per game.
• Bogues (35:47) and Harris (34:36) rank first and second respectively in the Southland in minutes per game making them two of the top 100 players by usage in all of NCAA Division I men's basketball this season.
• This week, the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) - in conjunction with the American Cancer Society - is holding its annual Suits & Sneakers week. All NCAA Division I men's basketball coaches around the nation will be trading in their dress shoes for sneakers on the sidelines to raise awareness and help save lives by raising funds and encouraging people to educate themselves about cancer prevention, screening, and early detection.
• SFA head coach Kyle Keller and his staff - along with Abilene Christian head coach Joe Golding and his staff - will be sporting sneakers on the sidelines Wednesday night inside William R. Johnson Coliseum.
• In his tenure at SFA, Keller is 3-1 (.750) during Suits & Sneakers week.
HARRIS CLIMBING THE CHARTS
• Last Saturday, junior Kevon Harris became the 31st player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. In all, the Ellenwood, Ga., product has scored 1,020 points in his career which represents the 30th-highest point total by a single SFA player in program history.
• When taking a look at SFA's history as an NCAA institution, Harris' 1,020 points are the 15th-most by a 'Jack since the program made the transition to the NCAA back in the 1980s.
• It's very likely that Harris will enter the 'Jacks' top ten list of three-point shooters before the season comes to a close, too. He needs to hit five more triples to tie Eric Rhodes for 10th place all-time in career three-pointers made. With just four more attempts, Harris will move into a 10th-place deadlock with Rhodes in career three-point field goal tries.
• Following a 10-of-11 showing at the foul line at Incarnate Word last Saturday, Harris also moved into the list of top ten NCAA-era free throw shooters at SFA. His 251 makes ranks 10th in the 'Jacks' NCAA history while his 360 free throw attempts also stands as the 10th most by any player in the program's NCAA days.
SHANNON'S SCORING STREAK
• Dating back to the 'Jacks' final game of the 2017-18 season (an opening round NCAA Tournament setback to eventual Elite Eight squad Texas Tech), senior guard Shannon Bogues has put in at least 10 points in 18-straight games.
• That's the fourth-longest streak of double-digit scoring games by a single player in SFA's NCAA Division I history. The longest such run came across the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons when Nathan Randle pumped in 10 or more points in 30 consecutive games.
• In addition to Randle's NCAA-era record of 30 straight games with 10 or more, two other former 'Jacks have exceeded Bogues' run of 18-straight 10+ point games. In the 1998-99 season, Patrick Gusters put in 10 or more for 25 games in a row while Antonio Burks enjoyed a streak of 20 games of 10 or more during the 2003-04 campaign.
LAST TIME OUT
• A heavy does of Kevon Harris coupled with some strong free throw shooting helped the 'Jacks put an end to their three-game Southland Conference losing skid Saturday in San Antonio as SFA secured a 74-71 victory at Incarnate word.
• The win - SFA's third in a row over the Cardinals - was the 'Jacks second true road victory of the 2018-19 campaign. Harris broke a 71-71 deadlock by sinking a pair of go-ahead free throws with 27 seconds. Those free throw makes finished off a 25-point outing for the Ellenwood, Ga., product.
• Through the course of Saturday's showdown, Harris etched his name in the SFA record books by becoming the 31st player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. It was Harris' third outing of 20 or more points in 2018-19 and his 11th as a collegiate basketball player.
• Shannon Bogues pumped in 15 points, too, running his streak of double-digit scoring games to 18 in the process. Also in double digits was Davonte Fitzgerald who finished with 16 in the victory.
• Harris went 10-of-11 from the free throw line in the 10th meeting between SFA and Incarnate Word, establishing SFA individual highs for both free throws made and free throws attempted in 2018-19.
• As a team, the 'Jacks established season highs in both free throws made (22) and free throws attempted (30) in their win at Incarnate Word.
• For the fourth time in 2018-19, SFA connected on over 50-percent of its field goals. The 'Jacks' field goal percentage of .548 in the win was the team's best in a Southland Conference game this season and the squad's highest in a league game since shooting .500 in a home victory over Abilene Christian on Feb. 28, 2018.
• For the first time in Southland Conference action this season, SFA held the lead at halftime. The 'Jacks posted a 40-36 advantage over the Cardinals after one half of play, giving the team the lead at the break for the first time in 2019.
• SFA moves to 2-2 in 2018-19 with the starting lineup of Harris, Bogues, Fitzgerald, Nathan Bain and Samuli Nieminen.
• Nieminen tied his career-high by lacing a pair of three-pointers in the 'Jacks' win. His first long ball was the 'Jacks' first field goal of the tilt while his second handed the visitors a 68-63 lead with 3:08 remaining.
SCOUTING ABILENE CHRISTIAN | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Only eight programs from around the nation have exceeded the Wildcats' Southland Conference-leading win total of 16 games thus far in 2018-19. Those 16 wins are tied for the most in a single season in head coach Joe Golding's tenure and the eighth-year bench boss will undoubtedly be looking to grab win number 17 in a city where Abilene Christian hasn't been victorious since 1981.
• The Wildcats sit just a half-game back of league-leading Sam Houston State (10-8, 5-0 Southland) and have kept pace with the league leaders thanks to some impressive play. Abilene Christian leads the Southland in no fewer than nine statistical categories including assist/turnover ratio (1.32), assists per game (15.9), field goal percentage (.489), scoring defense (63.9), scoring margin (+12.1), three-point field goal percentage (.413), turnover margin (+4.7) and turnovers per game (12.1).
• Six different players have led the Wildcats in scoring at least one in 2018-19 but none have done so more than junior Payten Ricks. One of three players averaging at least 12 points per game, Ricks pumps in points at a rate of 12.3 per game while leading the Southland and ranking seventh nationally in three-point field goal percentage (.480). The junior also leads the league in total steals (39) and is shooting 55.6-percent (20-of-36) from long range in Southland games.
• In addition to Ricks, the Wildcats rely heavily on the contributions of Jalone Friday and Jaren Lewis in order to get the job done. Friday leads the team in scoring at a clip of 13.9 points per game while Lewis is second, putting in an average of 13.2 points per outing. Both are shooting .480 or higher from the field and both average at least 5.1 rebounds per game, too.
• Seven of the Wildcats' wins have come either on the road or at neutral sites. That's one more win in road and neutral games combined than Abilene Christian had through all of the 2017-18 campaign.
COMING UP NEXT
• In its final game in the month of January, SFA remains in Nacogdoches to host Southland Conference and out-of-state foe Central Arkansas next Wednesday evening (Jan. 30). Tip-off is slated for 6:30 p.m. and the 20th all-time meeting between the 'Jacks and Bears will be carried nationwide on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
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