Stephen F. Austin
East Texas A&M
#16 Jacks Close Homestand with East Texas A&M
2/8/2026 11:13:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SFA eyes win #22, tenth-straight victory and 14th win at home in Monday night action against Lions
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin closes out a five-game homestand on Monday night as it concludes its regular season series with East Texas A&M. The Jacks will put a ten-game winning streak and an unbeaten 14-0 home record on the line against the Lions. The two squads first met on December 29 in Commerce with the Jacks winning convincingly 75-48. That victory snapped a three-game losing streak to ETAM and served as the Jacks' first DI victory over the Lions. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. from inside the Sawmill with live coverage available at www.SFAjacks.com.
• LAST TIME OUT: SFA used a 26-2 run over the game's final 9:56 of play and the Jacks held ETAM scoreless over the game's final 5:52. Three Lumberjacks finished in double-figure scoring and two more corralled ten rebounds as the Jacks returned from a short Christmas hiatus with an impressive second-half effort.
• AN SFA WIN WOULD:
*give the Jacks the regular season sweep of the Lions
*move the Jacks' winning streak to ten games; the longest by the program since 2021-22 and the longest league streak since the same season
*be the 15th in league play this season; the most since the 2021-22 campaign
*improve its home record to 14-0; the longest home winning streak since 2017-18
• MATCHING UP WITH EAST TEXAS A&M:
ETAM averages 71.4 points per game with a scoring margin of -3.1. The Lions attempt more threes per game than any other squad in the SLC with 26.9 attempts, while sharing the basketball at the second-highest assists per game rate in the league at 16.4. The Lions enter Monday's matchup at 5-10 and tied with UIW in the SLC, two games back of seventh-place Lamar. Ronnie Harrison leads the Lions with 15.0 ppg and Damian Garcia follows with 11.0 ppg. Harrison shoots at the SLC's fourth-highest clip of 48.5% from the floor. Gianni Hunt paces the league with 122 assists and rates second in helpers per at 4.9. Vinny Sigona and Garcia have combined for 96 total three-pointers with both players ranking in the top 15 of the league.
• BURTON BUTTON: Over the past two weeks, a span of five games, first-year Jack Kam Burton has shot 54.8% from beyond-the-arc in 31 attempts sinking four three-point attempts in wins over Lamar (1/24), Southeastern Louisiana (1/31) and McNeese (2/2). Burton has made three or more shots from range in four of the past five games and has made at least a single three in seven-straight games. He has nine games with 3+ makes from three this season with six 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 46 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 ias averaging 17 makes from the stripe in two 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 nine-straight games; the longest active streak in the Southland.
• A HELPING HAND: The Jacks have recorded double-digit assists in 19 of 24 games and have committed 10 or fewer turnovers 16 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 739 points in 47 games dating back to the start of last season. Thompson leads the SLC in total points (429) and is second in scoring average (17.9).
• 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 (38.29) and defensive rebounds (25.58), rank second in rebound margin (+4.9) and rank third in offensive rebounds (12.71). 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 fourth league-wide in rebounding at 7.2 and ranks third in total rebounds with 173 behind the SLC's second-best offensive boards per night mark at 2.96.
• 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 (61) and blocks per game (2.54). Both marks rank inside the top ten nationally and his current total this season are the third-most in a single campaign in program history. Against Lamar, Colonel moved into a tie for 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 41.0%; a mark that ranks inside the top 45 among DI trigger men. He rates inside the DI top 75 in 3pt makes per game (2.75) and total 3pt makes (66) both of which rank third in the SLC.
• PERIMETER ACTIVITY: While Lateef Patrick Jr. (53) and Kam Burton (54) both join Chotikavanic inside the league's top 7, 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 12 nationally in 3pt% defense at 29.2%. Through 24 games, opponents have attempted 20+ three-points shots against the Jacks 19 times and have made eight or more on only four occasions.
• LET IT FLY: The Jacks have surpassed their three-point output from a season ago. Chotikavanic is five made threes away from having the most makes from range by a Jack in the last ten seasons. Patrick (53 made 3s) and Burton (54 made threes) have hit three or more trifectas in a game a combined 18 times this season. This year's Jacks are the first SFA squad in program history with three players having bucketed 50+ three-point attempts.
• ALL ABOUT POINTS: The Jacks enter the weekend with the league's best scoring defense holding opponents to 65.3 ppg which rates inside the top 20 nationally. SFA's scoring margin sits at +12.8, the second-highest in the SLC, behind the league's second-best scoring offense at 78.2 ppg which currently stands as the highest scoring average for the program since 2020-21.
• KEN POM + NET RANK: Through games played through February 7, the Jacks rank 84th in the KenPom.com ratings and are inside the Division I Top 100 in NCAA NET rankings at No. 76. Both of those inclusions are currently the second-highest nods for a Southland program as the Jacks trail McNeese (No. 66 KP, No. 60 NET). Of the advanced metrics, the Jacks hold the No. 64 rating in adjusted defensive efficiency; higher than eight other KP top 50 teams among which include No. 20 Alabama, No. 30 Auburn and No. 34 Texas.
• 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 for the second-straight week. 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, but the Jacks got their lick back at home with a 67-60 win last Monday.
• 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 Houston's South Region with an opening round matchup against No. 5 BYU.
• 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 13-0 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.
