Guest abovetherim Posted January 26, 2008 Report Posted January 26, 2008 Lamar 91, at Northwestern State 82 NATCHITOCHES, La. - Kenny Dawkins scored 18 points and dished out nine assists, while Jay Brown added a season-high 15 points off the bench as Lamar defeated Northwestern State, 91-82, to end a seven-game losing streak to the Demons on Saturday afternoon. Lamar (10-8, 4-1 Southland) also got 15 points from Darren Hopkins and 13 from Matthew Barrow in addition to seven rebounds from each. The Cardinals got excellent production from their bench to the tune of 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting and 16 rebounds. The Cardinals continued their strong offensive board work with 20 rebounds that they turned into 14 points. Lamar also scored 32 points off 22 NSU turnovers, with many of their 23 fast break points coming in transition. Lamar held a 42-29 rebounding edge. For NSU (7-13, 3-3 Southland), Trey Gilder led the team with 24 points and seven rebounds as they dropped their third-consecutive game. The Demons shot 63 percent in the first half before finishing the game at 51 percent. Lamar made five of first seven baskets in jumping out to a 14-5 lead before NSU went on a 13-0 run to claim a 22-19 edge with 11:11 left. Later in the half Lamar got a pair of baskets from Hopkins on a three in the corner and a fast break layup to take a 34-33 lead with 7:00. Dawkins followed with one of his three first-half steals and layup to make it a 36-33 game. NSU took a 43-42 lead on a Michael McConathy bucket after a turnover with 3:04, but consecutive McThay fast break layups gave the lead right back to the Cardinals 46-43. Lamar went into the locker room with a 50-47 lead. The Demons opened the half on an 8-2 run to take a 55-52 lead. The Cardinals then went on an 22-4 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 74-59. The run featured seven points from Barrow and five apiece from Dawkins and Nabors. Then NSU started its comeback. The Demons put together a pair of 7-0 runs and trimmed the Cardinal lead to 83-80 on a Gilder three-point play with 2:55 remaining. Dawkins made a jumper in the lane before Colby Bargeman answered with a jumper of his own and that was the last time NSU would score. Dawkins made a layup and a pair of free throw, followed by a pair of freebies from Brown to close out the scoring. Lamar will have a week off before playing host to McNeese State in a doubleheader with the Cardinal and Cowgirl women on Saturday at the Montagne Center. The women's game is scheduled to tip-off at 4 p.m. with the men to follow at 7 p.m. Southeastern La. 80, at Nicholls State 66 (Cox Sports TV) THIBODAUX, La. - Kevyn Green scored a game-high 19 points to lead four players in double figures and Southeastern Louisiana turned in its best shooting performance since 1964 as it built a 26-point lead and defeated arch rival Nicholls State, 80-66, in a regionally-televised Southland Conference game Saturday at Stopher Gymnasium. Warrell Span posted his second double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Dekyron Nicks added 13 points and freshman Daryl Arnold 12 as Southeastern (11-7, 3-2 SLC) shot a season-high 67.5 percent from the floor and snapped a two-game losing streak in Thibodaux. Southeastern, whose best ever performance from the floor came against Southern Miss when the Lions finished 35-for-51 (68.6 percent), finished 27-for-40 overall in the game against the Colonels, including 10-for-14 (a single-game school-record 71.4 percent) from behind the 3-point line. Southeastern scored the game's first eight points, beginning with a dunk by Patrick Sullivan, before Nicholls State (6-14, 1-4 SLC) got as close as 10-7 on a jumper by Anatoly Bose with 12:41 left in the first half. After a 3-pointer by Hammond's Chris Cyprian, the Lions went on a 9-1 run with Arnold hitting three consecutive 3-pointers that gave Southeastern a 22-8 lead. The Colonels cut the lead to 24-13 after a pair of free throws by Adonis Gray before Southeastern scored the next 10 points. Green, who finished 6-for-7 from the floor, opened the run with a layup before draining a 3-pointer after a miss by Bose. Arnold, who 4-for-6 from the floor, drained his final 3-pointer of the game from the right wing before a layup by Nicks with 2:53 left to give Southeastern a 34-13 lead. While Southeastern was having a great night from the floor, its defense was harassing the Colonels all night. Nicholls State, which gave then top-ranked North Carolina all it could handle earlier this season, went 6-for-24 from the floor (25 percent) in the first half and finished 22-for-63 (35 percent) for the game. The Lions built a 63-37 lead on a layup by Nicks with 7:45 remaining and was up, 71-50, with 3:23 left after a layup by Span. But the Colonels heated up behind a long-range barrage, getting as close as 75-66 on a 3-pointer by Gil Verner with 1:08 remaining, but the Lions, who made 16-of-18 free throws in the game, sank five in the final minute to ice the game. Ryan Bathie led Nicholls State with 18 points as the Australian sharp-shooter was held to 7-for-22 from the floor and 3-for-11 from behind the arc. Bose added 16 points for the Colonels, who made seven of their eight 3-pointers in the second half, while Verner and Justin Payne had 11 points each. Southeastern will return home to the University Center where it will play six of its next seven games. The Lions will host SLC East rival Central Arkansas on Thursday for "Jam the Jungle Night" before hosting in-state rival Northwestern State in a 3 p.m. contest that will be televised statewide on Cox Sports Television. At Central Arkansas 57, McNeese State 43 CONWAY, Ark. - The University of Central Arkansas Bears got a much-needed victory Saturday night at the Farris Center, and it came with surprising ease. The Bears never trailed and cruised to a 57-43 victory over the McNeese State Cowboys in Southland Conference action. The win broke a four-game conference losing streak and improved the Bears to 12-8 overall and 2-4 in SLC play. McNeese dropped to 8-9 and 2-3. "Anytime you can hold someone under 40, you've got a good chance to win,' said UCA head coach Rand Chappell. "We were really able to shut them down. Landrell Brewer did an excellent job on (Jarvis) Bradley and made the game hard for him. And (Diego) Kapelan was coming off a 20-point game at Northwestern State, when he really lit them up, and he's 0 for 6 today. Nobody gave him any good looks. "When you do a good job on their top two or three people, then that really helps.' The Bears led 7-1 after the first four minutes and held the Cowboys to a single field goal for the first eight minutes of the game. After McNeese got to within 11-5 at the 12:14 mark, the Bears went on a 11-2 scoring run, highlighted by a pair of layups by senior Nate Bowie and a long three-pointer by junior York Sims that made it 22-7 with 6:23 left in the half. The lead was never less than 11 points the remainder of the game as the Bears came out of the locker room at halftime and quickly turned their 11-point lead into a 21-point margin on a nifty lane move and dunk by Brewer. In his third start since an injury to senior Durrell Nevels, Brewer was dominant on the boards with a career-high 12 rebounds and helped hold McNeese State's All-Conference center and leading scorer Jarvis Bradley to 12 points, with 8 of those coming at the free-throw line. "Without Durrell, rebounding was definitely a concern,' said Chappell. "But I think the guys have done a good job of team rebounding. Landrell really picked it up tonight.' The closest the Cowboys got in the second half was 13 points when John Pichon made a jumper with just 30 seconds left to play. Pichon and Bradley had 12 points each for the Cowboys, who scored their second-lowest point total of the season. MSU shot only 27.8 percent from the field (15 of 54) and 11 of 22 (50 percent) from the free-throw line. Bowie topped the Bears with 19 points, while sophomore Marcus Pillow added 15 and Sims 14 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. UCA, averaging 16 turnover a game, committed only nine and offset that with 11 steals. "The style of play was a little different,' Chappell said, "but they still tried to press us all night and get us in the backcourt. But the guys just did a much better job of taking care of the ball. We had a meeting with our four guards at the end (of practice) yesterday, and we said, if the four of you can keep your turnovers under 10, we’ll probably win about every game. "They took a little pride tonight and really took care of the ball better.' UCA returns to the road on Thursday, taking on Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La., and Nicholls State on Saturday in Thibodaux, La. Texas State 79, at UTSA 73 SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Ryan White notched a career-high 17 points in the Texas State Bobcats 79-73 victory over Texas-San Antonio Saturday night in the I-35 maroon versus orange rivalry game. The healthy rivalry quickly came to play when Chris Agwumaro knocked down a three-pointer to kill a 4-0 run that UTSA opened that game with. The senior dropped in two more points to give Texas State a one-point lead. The Roadrunners retaliated but a combined effort by Brandon Thomas to Brandon Bush put the `Cats ahead, again. White fought for back-to-back defensive boards on the following possessions and found a wide-open lane the second time around for the easy lay-in. Going point for point, the Roadrunners were there to answer, but White dropped in two more, 10-11, in favor of the Bobcats. A fervent defensive effort by Texas State forced a shock clock violation on the Roadrunners, but the rival countered with a 10-2 run over the Bobcats. At 3:17, the defense was back forcing another botched possession for UTSA and cashed it in for an easy two in the paint by Thomas, 26-19. Texas State continued on the road and came within three points with less than a minute on the clock. Matt Fullenwider went to the line with 30 seconds on the clock, went 2-2, and sent the `Cats into the half 30-29. Mimicking the first half, Agwumaro and White paired for the first two maroon and white baskets for an opening and the points never stopped flowing. At 10:18, the clumsy ball-handling of Texas-San Antonio's squad put the ball in the hands of White who found Brent Holder open at the arc. Riding a six-point lead, Holder muscled his way for two more points to give the Bobcats a 48-56 lead. Texas State led by as many as 12 points before the final buzzer that was highlighted by eight points each chipped in by Agwumaro and Ty Gough. The Runners came within four points of a tie at 2:47, 63-67, but their foul tally sent Texas State to the line for a rising score one shot at a time to take the game. For the game, the Bobcats shot .462 percent from the field to UTSA's .429 percent. The Bobcats grabbed eight steals, one less than the Roadrunners, while the `Cats won the battle underneath posting 36 points in the paint over Texas-San Antonio's 26. The Bobcats went an impressive 26-36 from the stripe in tonight's contest, a 70 percent effort. White went 5-9 from the field and 6-6 from the stripe, topping the charts for Texas State. Brent Benson finished with 14 points and Chris Agwumaro tallied 13, along with his five rebounds in the contest. Gough finished one shy of a double-double with ten points and nine rebounds. Texas San-Antonio was led by 20 points from Melvin Smith and a 15-point outing by Devin Gibson. The Bobcats will remain on the road, taking on Stephen F. Austin Wednesday in Nacogdoches. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on 89.9 FM KTSW. UT Arlington 57, at A&M-Corpus Christi 55 ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington endured its longest road trip of the Southland Conference men's basketball season at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, then had to hold on for 5.3 second to leave the American Bank Center with a 57-55 victory on Saturday. UTA led by that same margin at the 1:30 mark after Islanders 7-footer Chris Daniel nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key, breaking a field goal droubt of seven minutes for the home team. UTA missed on its next possession. The Islanders missed - running the exact play for the exact shot by Daniels. UTA then ran the shot clock down and settled for a Larry Posey shot from the right elbow. It fell short. The Islanders rebounded, dribbled up court and set up for the last shot with 5.3 left. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tossed inbounds to Antonio Topps, who hadn't taken a shot the entire game. He dribbled left but couldn't get close enough thanks to defense by Mavericks sophomore Cardell Hunter. His desperation shot from 24 feet on the left wing wasn't even close, and UTA rebounded to secure the victory. The Mavericks (14-4, 4-2 in the SLC) left South Texas with a four-game win streak and the knowledge that they would stay atop the SLC West Division standings. "Winning on the road is tough anywhere in this league, but this situation was especially hard for us," UTA coach Scott Cross said. "We got in late, woke up and played a game not long after. We didn't shoot well, but to play this hard and with this much energy made our coaching staff especially proud of these guys." The Islanders (5-13, 2-3), who had a two-game win streak snapped, held UTA to 41.9 percent shooting and 2-for-13 from the 3-point line. So the Mavericks had to look inside, getting 12 points from Jermaine Griffin and 20 from Anthony Vereen. Finding themselves down late in the second half, UTA went to Vereen for a basket and the tie at 51-51. A Vereen 3-point play followed the 4:20 mark to make it 54-51. When the Islanders closed within two, another Vereen layup made it 56-52. That's when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi got a 3-pointer from big man Daniels to set up the last minute. As was the case with UT Arlington's first conference road game against Central Arkansas, the Mavericks silenced the crowd with a fast start. After two free throws by Jermaine Griffin, the Mavericks went into the first media timeout just under the 16-minute mark with an 8-2 lead. A steal and layup by Kevin Perkins, followed by a 3-point play by Demond Watt tied the game at 10-10 with 13:21 left. From there, neither team led by more than four in the first half. UTA went up 24-20 after a Rog'er Guignard steal and fast-break layup by Cardell Hunter. The Islanders quickly closed the gap, thanks to Perkins 3-pointer. The Mavericks jumped ahead 26-22 on a Tommy Moffitt putback, but another Perkins 3-pointer made it 26-25. UTA closed the first half with three empty possessions, but so did Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and UTA held a 31-29 advantage. Rog'er Guignard started the second half with a 3-pointer - his first of the game in five attempts - and it looked like the Mavericks could create some breathing room. But Texas A&M-Corpus Christi answered with a 12-4 run, capped by a Horace Bond 3-pointer from the left wing. That 3-pointer put the Islanderrs up 41-38. It was then UTA's turn to play catchup. Each time the Islanders moved ahead by three or four points, UTA would answer to set up the stretch run. http://www.southland.org/ViewArticle.dbml?temp_site=NO&DB_OEM_ID=18400&ATCLID=1376198
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