Stephen F. Austin
Southeastern Louisiana
League-leading Jacks Host SLU
1/30/2026 2:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SFA puts winning streaks on the line against the Lions are January comes to an end
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - A five-game homestand rolls on for Stephen F. Austin men's basketball as the second of two regular season meetings with Southeastern Louisiana is set for Saturday afternoon inside the Sawmill. Two days later, the Jacks meet McNeese in Nacogdoches. The Southland Conference-leading Jacks put a perfect 10-0 home record as well as a six-game winning streak on the line against the Lions. SFA knocked off SLU 73-63 in the first action of 2026 in Hammond. The weekend tilt will be the 40th against the two foes since 1985. The Jacks have won eight of the past ten matchups. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. from inside William R. Johnson Coliseum with live coverage available at www.SFAjacks.com.
• LAST TIME OUT: Senior guard Keon Thompson matched his career-high scoring effort with 27 points and the Jacks used a fast start and managed to stay a step ahead of a surging Northwestern State squad. Jerald Colonel made an impressive hustle play along the SFA bench to save a possession heading out of bounds as the Jacks kept the ball leading 67-62 with less than 15 seconds to play. Colonel's effort ended up in the hands of Thompson who iced the contest with two makes at the line. SFA made just two of their final 11 shot attempts and went the game's final 4:42 without a field goal.
• A LOOK AT THE LIONS: SFA's ten-point win over SLU opened the month of January and served as the Jacks' seventh-straight win. Fast forward four weeks and the Jacks again eye a seventh-straight win, one that would increase its home winning streak to 11 games. Among the statistical metrics that the Lions rank the highest in among SLC squads include free throw makes per game (15.8) and turnovers forced per game (13.71). SLU is allowing less than 70 points per game, but owns a -4.4 scoring margin. Jeremy Elyzee and Isaiah Gaines each average 11 points per game, while Gaines enforces the paint for SLU pacing the team in blocks (22), blocks per game (1.05), rebounds (132) and rebounds per game (6.3).
• AN SFA WIN WOULD:
*be the 29th against SLU since 1985
*move the Jacks' winning streak to seven games
*be the 12th in league play this season; the most since the 202-23 campaign
*improve its home record to 11-0; the longest home winning streak since 2017-18
*improve its record in the month of January to 7-1
• SAWMILL SUCCESSES: You can't beat the comfort of your own home and for SFA they have yet to be beaten when in the comfort of theirs. The Jacks are 10-0 at home inside William R. Johnson Coliseum this season dispatching opponents by an average of 20 points. The streak is the longest in Nacogdoches since the 2020-21 season.
• TAKING THE FREEBIES: The Jacks shot a season-best 80% (min. 15 attempts) from the stripe against Nicholls. SFA has shot better than 71% from the line in four of their last six games, something the squad did just three times over their first 15 games. Collectively, the Jacks are shooting over eight percentage points better from the free throw line in the month of January than their effort over the first two months of the season.
• UNCHARTED WATERS: SFA's efforts in taking UIW to the deep end beyond-the-arc resulted in just the third time this season that a team failed to make a three against a DI foe. Per CBB Reference and most notably spread by @trillydonovan on X, it's the 10th time SFA has held a team without a three-point make since the 2007 season - tied with Princeton for the most by any team in that span.
• THE FIRST TIME SINCE: SFA's seven-game win streak prior to the McNeese lost was the squad's longest since the 2022-23 season which came behind the Jacks' first five-game win streak to open SLC play since 2020-21. SFA enters Saturday's matchup having won six-straight games; the longest active streak in the Southland.
• A HELPING HAND: The Jacks have recorded double-digit assists in 17 of 21 games and have committed 10 or fewer turnovers a 14 times. SFA's assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.50 leads the SLC and the Jacks protect possessions as good as any team in the country with an SLC-leading effort of 9.5 turnovers per game: a top 20 mark in Division I basketball.
• 1KEON: On the road against Southeastern Louisiana (Jan. 3), senior guard Keon Thompson, a selection to the Lou Henson National Mid-Major Player of the Year Midseason Watch List, reached a career scoring milestone with 1,000 career points. The Indiana native scored 452 points over two seasons (60 games) at UMass and has delivered 684 points in 44 games dating back to the start of last season. Thompson leads the SLC in total points (374) and in scoring average (17.8).
• WINDEX WARRIORS: Matt Braeuer's year one squad has developed into the best glass-cleaning unit in the SLC. The Jacks lead the league in rebounds per game (39.62), defensive rebounds (26.29) and rebound margin (+5.5) and rank second in offensive rebounds (13.33). The Jacks have grabbed 40+ rebounds in a game a dozen times with 50+ against a pair of non-D1 foes. First-year Jack Jerald Colonel ranks third league-wide in rebounding at 7.5 and total rebounds with 158 behind an SLC-best 3.10 offensive boards per night.
• BLOCK PARTY: Colonel, the reigning SLC DPOTY, carried his shot-swatting abilities across state lines from Natchitoches as the Georgia native leads the SLC in total blocks (54) and blocks per game (2.57). Both marks rank inside the top eight nationally and his current total this season are the third-most in a single campaign in program history. Colonel is seven blocks back from taking over second on the single-season list.
• THE NAR"IT" FACTOR: First-year Jack Narit Chotikavanic, the Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year a season ago, has been lights out from range. The Plano, Texas native leads the SLC in 3pt% at 40.8%; a mark that ranks inside the top 40 among DI trigger men. He rates inside the DI top 60 in 3pt makes per game (2.86) and total 3pt makes (60) both of which rank third in the SLC.
• PERIMETER ACTIVITY: While Lateef Patrick Jr. and Kam Burton both join Chotikavanic inside the league's top 15, the only SLC program with three among the league's 15 best, in total made three-pointers on one end of the floor, the Jacks are clamped on the defensive perimeter. SFA rates inside the top 20 nationally in 3pt% defense at 29.2%.
• LET IT FLY: The Jacks have surpassed their three-point output from a season ago. Chotikavanic is 11 made threes away from having the most makes from range by a Jack in the last ten seasons. Patrick (48 made 3s) and Burton (43 made threes) have hit three or more trifectas in a game a combined 14 times this season. This year's Jacks are the first SFA squad since 2017-18 with three players having bucketed 40+ three-point attempts.
• ALL ABOUT POINTS: The Jacks enter the weekend with the league's best scoring defense holding opponents to 65.5 ppg which rates inside the top 25 nationally. SFA's scoring margin sits at +12.6, the second-highest in the SLC, behind the league's second-best scoring offense at 78.1 ppg which currently stands as the highest scoring average for the program since 2020-21.
• KEN POM + NET RANK: Through games played through January 29, the Jacks rank 98th in the KenPom.com ratings and are inside the Division I Top 100 in NCAA NET rankings at No. 91. Both of those inclusions are currently the second-highest nods for a Southland program as the Jacks trail McNeese (No. 68 KP, No. 55 NET). Of the advanced metrics, the Jacks hold the No. 73 rating in adjusted defensive efficiency; higher than KP top 50 teams Auburn (No. 26), SMU (No. 36), UCF (No. 45) and VCU (No. 47).
• INSIDER TRENDING: After receiving votes for seven weeks to start the 2025-26 season, SFA broke into the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll debuting at No. 23 nationally on January 12. The Jacks climbed a single spot to No. 22 as of the January 19 ranking and enter the weekend ranked No. 16 nationally as of the final weekly poll for the month of January. The Jacks' lone ranked opponent in the poll is fellow SLC foe McNeese at No. 15. The Cowboys rallied to beat the Lumberjacks 66-64 to hand SFA its first league loss, while keeping a lengthy home winning streak intact.
• JOEY BRACKETS: The latest Bracketology release from March Madness guru Joe Lunardi projects the Lumberjacks, who have five NCAA Tournament appearances in program history, as the No. 13 seed in Chicago's Midwest Region with an opening round matchup against No. 4 Vanderbilt.
