Stephen F. Austin
Abilene Christian
Tuesday Night Tilt at Abilene Christian Up Next for 'Jacks
3/4/2019 8:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SFA sits in three-way tie with Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Southland standings
Game Twenty-Nine
SFA (14-14, 7-9 Southland) at Abilene Christian (23-6, 12-4 Southland)
Tuesday, March 5 | 7:00 p.m. | Abilene, Texas | Moody Coliseum (4,600)
Watch (ESPN+/ESPN app) | Listen (Q107.7/TuneIn) | Live Stats | SFA Game Notes | ACU Game Notes
THE OPENING TIP
• In a three-way tie for sixth place in the Southland Conference standings with two regular season games remaining, the SFA men's basketball team sets out on its final road trip of the 2018-19
regular season. Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m., the 'Jacks tangle with Abilene Christian inside Moody Coliseum in a game which will have important implications for SFA's postseason hopes.
• ESPN+ and the ESPN app will carry each and every second of the action while longtime SFA play-by-play man Rob Meyers' narration of the game can be heard on the Learfield/IMG College Lumberjack Sports Network available over the airwaves on Q107.7 FM in Nacogdoches and nationwide via the TuneIn app.
• SFA, Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi are tied for the sixth spot in the Southland Conference standings with the top eight teams in the 13-team league assured a spot in the 2019 Southland Conference Tournament. Right behind that trio of teams is Central Arkansas and Northwestern State who trail the 'Jacks, Huskies and Islanders by one game.
• In terms of head-to-head tiebreakers, SFA has the upper hand on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi but would wind up on the losing end of a head-to-head tiebreaker against Central Arkansas (for the moment), Houston Baptist and Northwestern State.
LAST TIME OUT
• By scoring 26 and 16 points respectively, Shannon Bogues and Kevon Harris became the second pair of teammates in SFA's NCAA era to score 500 or more points in the same season, joining Josh Alexander (500) and Matt Kingsley (503) who did so in 2007-08, but the 'Jacks gave up a 6-0 run to Lamar in the final 1:15 and dropped an 81-79 decision to the Cardinals in Beaumont Saturday evening.
• Bogues moved up to 29th all-time on the 'Jacks' all-time scoring charts and now has 1,044 points to his credit in just two seasons. That puts the senior out of Killeen, Texas, into a tie with former SFA great Ty Charles in terms of career scoring output.
• Harris maintained his spot at 16th on SFA's all-time scoring list and upped his career scoring total to 1,268 points. With six more points, he will move past Marvin Polnick into 15th place all-time on the 'Jacks' scoring charts.
• Giving SFA some great minutes off of the bench, Oddyst Walker came in and slung in a season-high 10 points. The freshman went 3-of-4 from three-point land, establishing new single-season highs in three-pointers made and three-pointers attempted in the process.
• Davonte Fitzgerald added 18 points, a team-high eight rebounds and matched his career-high with three assists in the setback.
THE 500+ CLUB
• With 509 points through the 2018-19 season thus far, junior Kevon Harris has put in the seventh-most points in a single season in SFA's NCAA-era.
• Senior guard Shannon Bogues isn't far behind Harris as the Killeen, Texas, product has 505 points to his credit this season which is tied for the eighth-most in a single-season in SFA's NCAA era.
• Bogues and Harris join the likes of Thomas Walkup, Scott Dimak, Nathan Randle, Patrick Gusters, Desmond Haymon, Matt Kingsley and Taylor Smith as the only nine players to score 500 or more points in a single season in the 'Jacks' NCAA-era history.
• Bogues' 505 points are roughly one-half of his 1,044 total points while at SFA. That makes him one of just two players to amass 1,000 or more points through the course of two consecutive seasons in SFA's NCAA era. Other players on that list include Matt Kingsley, Nathan Randle and Thomas Walkup.
• By hauling in 17 more rebounds, Harris will become the 11th player in SFA's NCAA-era history to amass 500 or more rebounds in a career.
• This season, Bogues and Harris represent the top two scorers in the Southland Conference. Harris leads the 13-team league in scoring at a clip of 18.2 points per game while Bogues is in second with his scoring average of 18.0 points per game. Together they represent 50.9-percent of SFA's total scoring load in 2018-19.
TOP-TEN HARRIS
• Harris has been busy rewriting the 'Jacks' record books since the 2018-19 season began. As of this writing, he ranks eighth in SFA's NCAA-era history in terms of field goals made (410), sixth all-time in three-point field goals made (126), seventh in three-point field goals attempted (323), fourth in SFA's NCAA-era history in free throws made (322) and third in SFA's NCAA-era history in free throws attempted (453).
• This season alone, Harris has gone 130-of-175 from the free throw line, giving him the fifth-most free throws made in a single season in SFA's NCAA era and the fifth-most attempted in a single season in SFA's NCAA era.
SERIES HISTORY | SFA vs. ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Overall vs. Abilene Christian | 20-15 (.571)
In Nacogdoches, Texas | 12-6 (.667)
At William R. Johnson Coliseum | 10-3 (.769)
In Abilene, Texas | 8-8 (.500)
At Moody Coliseum | 8-6 (.571)
At neutral sites | 1-0 (1.000)
Last meeting | SFA 61, ACU 60 | Jan. 23, 2019
Last SFA win | January 23, 2019 | 61-60
Last SFA home win | January 23, 2019 | 61-60
Last SFA road win | January 17, 2018 | 76-66
Last ACU win | January 7, 2017 | 69-60
Last ACU home win | January 7, 2017 | 69-60
Last ACU road win | January 10, 1981 | 61-57
Largest margin of victory (SFA) | 35 | 97-62 on Jan. 16, 2016
Largest margin of defeat (SFA) | 32 | 47-15 in 1927
Current Streak | SFA won three
Last five games | 4-1 (.800)
Last five home games | 5-0 (1.000)
Last five away games | 4-1 (.800)
Last 10 games | 9-1 (.900)
Last 10 home games | 8-2 (.800)
Last 10 away games | 7-3 (.700)
SFA points | average | 2,261 | 64.6
ACU points | average | 2,172 | 62.1
Average scoring margin | +2.5
Keller vs. Abilene Christian | 3-1 (.750)
At William R. Johnson Coliseum | 2-0 (1.000)
At Moody Coliseum | 1-1 (.500)
Keller vs. Golding | 3-1 (.750)
Golding vs. SFA | 1-6 (.143)
SFA all-time on March 5 | 7-2 (.778)
SCOUTING ABILENE CHRISTIAN | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Already assured a top-four spot in the upcoming 2019 Southland Conference Tournament, the Wildcats are hoping to sew up the number two seed with a win over SFA Tuesday night. A victory would ensure that third-place New Orleans and fourth-place Southeastern Louisiana would have no chance of securing the coveted double-bye over Abilene Christian.
• The Wildcats head into their penultimate regular season game of 2018-19 armed with a number of Southland-best statistical rankings to their credit. Abilene Christian leads the 13-team league in field goal percentage (.474), scoring defense (63.7 opponent points per game), scoring margin (+10.8), three-point field goal percentage (.389) and turnover margin (+4.4).
• Abilene Christian's top two scorers are Jaren Lewis (13.2 ppg) and Payten Ricks (11.6 ppg). Lewis also represents the Wildcats' top rebounding threat (6.0 per game) and both are averaging at least 1.4 steals per game.
• The Wildcats have been without the services of both B.J. Banks and Jalone Friday who were dismissed from the team earlier in the season. Both of them were regular starters for the Wildcats who have now had to rely on their depth more than ever during their stretch run.
• So far this season, the Wildcats have amassed 23 wins - the most in program history since Abilene Christian joined the NCAA Division I ranks a half-decade ago. Those 23 wins are the most by any Southland Conference team and just 24 NCAA Division I men's basketball teams have accumulated more wins so far this season.
COMING UP NEXT
• Saturday inside William R. Johnson Coliseum, the 'Jacks entertain longtime Piney Woods rival and 2018-19 Southland Conference regular season champion Sam Houston State in the regular season finale foe both squads. The game, which will likely be rife with Southland Conference Tournament qualification and seeding implications for SFA, is set to be broadcast nationwide on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Lincoln Rose and Van Chancellor narrating the action.
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