Stephen F. Austin
UTRGV
#11 Jacks Prepped for Tall Task in the Valley
2/13/2026 9:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SFA eyes win #23, 11th-straight victory against streaking Vaqueros on Saturday afternoon in Edinburg
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin makes its longest trip of the Southland Conference slate this weekend as the Edinburg-Corpus Christi swing awaits the league-leading Jacks. SFA opens against the streaking Vaqueros, winners of eight-straight in league play after a 4-6 start, on Saturday afternoon in the Valley. SFA defeated UTRGV 73-60 back on December 3 in the SLC opener for both teams. The Jacks will put an 11-game winning streak on the line against the Vaqueros. Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m. with live coverage available at www.SFAjacks.com.
• LAST TIME OUT: Stephen F. Austin remained unbeaten inside the Sawmill after Monday night's Southland Conference tilt against East Texas A&M. SFA used 19 points from Kam Burton and 17 points from Keon Thompson and the Jacks held off the Lions 74-70 to earn the regular season series sweep.
SFA led 36-34 at the intermission before using seven points from Chrishawn Christmas, including an and-1 finish, to stay in front 48-47 at the 12:49 mark of the second half. The Jacks received 22 points off the bench on Monday night including ten straight from non-starters. A triple try from Narit Chotikavanic gave SFA that 48-47 advantage which was followed by buckets from Christian Green and Marcus Scurry and then capped by a banked three from Ahamed Mohammed as the Jacks lead grew to eight points at 55-47 with 11:02 remaining.
With the clock nearing the eight-minute mark, Burton, who nailed five threes in the win, put it on the floor and finished at the cup, while earning his second hoop-and-the-harm of the contest. Three minutes later, Burton nailed his fifth make from range as Thompson drew multiple defenders before kicking out to the former whose make increased the lead to ten at 67-57 with less than six minutes to play. The lead moved to 13 with the clock dipping below four minutes and a declining shot clock left just enough for Chotikavanic who drained a trifecta off an outlet from Thompson. That possession was prompted by a steal by Christmas and an offensive rebound from Chotikavanic who eventually hit the final field goal of the game for the Jacks as the host went scoreless from the field over the final 3:55 of play. Despite the lack of success from the floor in the final four minutes, SFA used two free throws on two trips from Thompson and two from Colonel in the game's final five seconds to hold off ETAM.
• AN SFA WIN WOULD:
*give the Jacks the regular season sweep of the Vaqueros
*move the Jacks' winning streak to 11 games; the longest by the program since 2019-20 and the longest league streak since the same season
*be the 16th in league play this season; the most since the 2019-20 campaign
*improve its road record to 9-3
• MATCHING UP WITH UTRGV: The Vaqueros enter having won eight straight games. UTRGV leads the SLC in assists average (16.9), effective FG% (55.5%) and three-pointers made per game (9.4) and rank second in three-point percentage (37.7%), free throw percentage (75.5%) and field goal percentage (47.4%). Jaylen Washington leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.23). Marvin McGhee III paces the Vaqueros efforts beyond-the-arc with 57 makes at 2.28 per game. Three players average double figures in scoring with Koree Cotton pacing at 13.2 ppg, Filip Brankovic following at 12.8 and McGhee III scoring 11.0 ppg.
• 5 FROM 500: Chrishawn Christmas heads to South Texas five rebounds shy of reaching 500 for his SFA career. Christmas leads the Jacks with 179 boards this season, the most by the Indiana native in any of his three seasons. He is seven defensive rebounds shy of a new personal single-season SFA best. In his collegiate career, Christmas has totaled 738 rebounds across three seasons at SFA (495) and one season at Panola College (243).
• GETTIN' ACTIVE: Jerald Colonel recently moved into the career active lead among all Division I shot blockers with a 2.35 blocks per game average. The mark ranks ninth among all three levels of NCAA competition. His 129 career swats are a top 40 mark among active players. Additionally, Kam Burton's 40.5% career three-point percentage is inside the top 45 of all active Division I shooters.
• BURTON BUTTON: Over the past six games, first-year Jack Kam Burton has shot 53.7% from beyond-the-arc in 41 attempts sinking four three-point attempts in wins over Lamar (1/24), Southeastern Louisiana (1/31) and McNeese (2/2) and five against East Texas A&M (2/9). Burton has made three or more shots from range in five of the past six games and has made at least a single three in eight-straight games. He has ten games with 3+ makes from three this season with seven coming in '26.
• REMEMBER ME?: First-year Jacks Jerald Colonel and Kam Burton were no stranger to the Southland upon arrival to Nacogdoches last summer. And for their former teams, Colonel's Demons and Burton's Lions, both were reminded of the current Jacks' impact for their specific squads a season ago. Colonel averaged 9.5 rebounds and 5.5 points against Northwestern State in two wins in addition to collecting three blocks. Burton averaged 9.5 points, while shooting 55.6% in nine attempts from range in two victories against the Lions.
• AND I'M THREE FALLIN': Against Southeastern, SFA hammered 16 three pointers in a game for the second time this season and for the first time against a Division I opponent. The effort matched its season-high output of 16 against Dallas which was the most by the Jacks since hitting 16 against Houston Baptist in 2015 (2/28). It is the first time in the new millennium that SFA has made 16+ threes twice in the same season. The Jacks shot a season-high 57.1% from beyond-the-arc against Southeastern Louisiana and has hit threes at a clip of 42% or better seven times this season with four games north of 50%. SFA enters Saturday's matchup having bucketed a three-pointer in 47 straight games.
• NICE TO KNOW YA, JANUARY:
The first month of 2026 has come and gone and did so with the Jacks posting an 8-1 record in the month with the only loss coming in Lake Charles to February's first foe. In nine games in January, SFA averaged nearly 76 points per game with a +10.4 scoring margin. The Jacks shot 45.2% from the floor with a 36% success rate from three. Thompson led SFA in scoring at 17.7 ppg with Patrick following with 14.8 ppg. Christmas and Colonel combined to average 14 rebounds per night as the Jacks posted a +4.2 board margin. Opponents averaged just six three-point makes per night against SFA during the first month of the year.
• TAKING THE FREEBIES: The Jacks shot a season-best 81.8% (min. 15 attempts) from the stripe in its second game against Lamar (2/7). The squad is averaging 15.7 makes from the stripe in three February games and has sank 15 or more attempts from the line ten times this season with seven coming in the New Year. SFA shot better than 71% from the line in five of their nine games in the month of January, something the squad did just twice in November and December combined.
• 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 ten-straight games; the longest active streak in the Southland, while the Vaqueros hold the second-longest current streak at eight games.
• A HELPING HAND: The Jacks have recorded double-digit assists in 20 of 25 games and have committed 10 or fewer turnovers 17 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 9.6 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 756 points in 48 games dating back to the start of last season. Thompson leads the SLC in total points (446) and is second 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 (38.20) and defensive rebounds (25.48), rank second in rebound margin (+5.2) and rank third in offensive rebounds (12.72). The Jacks have grabbed 40+ rebounds in a game a dozen times with 50+ against a pair of non-D1 foes. Chrishawn Christmas leads the team in rebounding average at 7.2 with first-year Jack Jerald Colonel second at 7.0. Christmas ranks third in total rebounds with 179, while Colonel leads the SLC in offensive boards per night mark at 3.00.
• 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 (62) and blocks per game (2.48). Both marks rank inside the top 12 nationally and his current total this season is ranked 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 ranks second in the SLC in 3pt% at 40.4%; a mark that ranks inside the top 45 among DI trigger men. He rates inside the DI top 85 in 3pt makes per game (2.68) and total 3pt makes (67) both of which rank third in the SLC.
• PERIMETER ACTIVITY: While Kam Burton (59) and Lateef Patrick Jr. (53) both join Chotikavanic inside the league's top 10, the only SLC program with three among the league's 10 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 29.5%. Through 25 games, opponents have attempted 20+ three-points shots against the Jacks 20 times and have made eight or more on only five occasions.
• LET IT FLY: The Jacks have surpassed their three-point output from a season ago. Chotikavanic is four made threes away from having the most makes from range by a Jack in the last ten seasons. Burton (59 made 3s) and Patrick (53 made 3s) have hit three or more trifectas in a game a combined 19 times this season. This year's Jacks are the first SFA squad in program history with three players having bucketed 50+ three-point attempts and are not far off from all three reaching 60+ made three-point shots.
• 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 20 nationally. SFA's scoring margin sits at +12.5, the second-highest in the SLC, behind the league's second-best scoring offense at 78.0 ppg which currently stands as the highest scoring average for the program since 2020-21.
• KEN POM + NET RANK: Through games played through February 12, the Jacks rank 86th in the KenPom.com ratings and are inside the Division I Top 85 in NCAA NET rankings at No. 82. Both of those inclusions are currently the second-highest nods for a Southland program as the Jacks trail McNeese (No. 74 KP, No. 65 NET). Of the advanced metrics, the Jacks hold the No. 69 rating in adjusted defensive efficiency; higher than eight other KP top 50 teams among which include No. 30 Auburn, No. 33 Texas, No. 37 SMU, No. 42 Ohio State, No. 44 Baylor, No. 46 VCU and No. 49 UCF.
• 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, held at No. 16 nationally for two-straight weeks and enter the weekend at No. 11 overall. The Jacks' lone ranked opponent in the poll is fellow SLC foe McNeese at No. 16. The Cowboys rallied to beat the Lumberjacks 66-64 to hand SFA its first league loss, but the Jacks got their lick back at home with a 67-60 win on February 2.
• 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. 12 seed in San Jose's West Region with an opening round matchup against No. 5 Arkansas.
• 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 14-0 at home inside William R. Johnson Coliseum this season dispatching opponents by an average of 19 points. The streak is the longest in Nacogdoches since the 2017-18 season when the Jacks won their first 15 games before finishing 16-1 at home.
