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KATY, Texas – For the third consecutive season, Stephen F. Austin used the Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament to be properly fitted for the Big Dance.
The top-seeded Lumberjacks spotted second-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi the game’s first six points before proceeding to overwhelm the Islanders 82-60 at Merrell Center on Saturday night to become the first Southland team to win at least three straight tournament titles since former-member Louisiana-Monroe won four consecutive championships from 1990-93. En route to earning the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, coach Brad Underwood’s team won its 20th straight game and will await their destination when the brackets are announced on Sunday afternoon.
SFA (27-5) won its fourth Southland Tournament crown, which ties them with Lamar for the second-most championships, trailing the six that Louisiana-Monroe captured.
“We got off to a slow start...a little tight,” Underwood said. “Then it settled in.”
As has been the case most of the season, it was the Lumberjacks’ defense that set the foundation for victory. After Ehab Amin’s basket tied the game at 10-all with 13:16 left in the first half, SFA held A&M-Corpus Christi (25-7) without a field goal for 9:59 until Joe Kilgore’s dunk finally got the Islanders out of their quagmire.
By then, the Lumberjacks had all put the game away, using a 33-10 run to put them up 43-20. Senior Clide Geffrard was key to the offensive side of matters, as he hit a pair of 3-pointers that helped spark the Lumberjacks’ outburst. After missing last year’s title game with a stress fracture, Geffrard scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds, which led to a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
En route to taking a 48-29 lead at intermission, SFA had held the Islanders’ starting five to just eight points on 5 of 15 shooting while also forcing 11 of A&M-Corpus Christi’s 20 turnovers.
“We wanted to make them score through our defense in the half-court,” Underwood said. “Once we did that, through our last defense assignment, which was rebound the basketball, we really felt we could exploit them in transition. All of that combined was really what broke that stretch open.”
The Lumberjacks cashed in 34 points off turnovers along with keeping the A&M-Corpus Christi guards from effectively distributing the ball, as they finished with only eight assists.
“Transition baskets are most difficult thing to defend in basketball,” Islanders coach Willis Wilson, whose team will receive a postseason invitational either Sunday or Monday, said. “When you have turnovers, typically what you don’t have is defense and balance. It’s really difficult to set your defense.”
Two-time conference player of the year Thomas Walkup became the first player in Southland history to be named the Tourney’s MVP three times. The senior scored 17 points and grabbed four rebounds on Saturday, etching his name in the Southland archives.
“It’s not something you take for granted,” Walkupv. “Maybe in 10-15 years, I’ll look back and see how special it is. Right now, it’s about making the tournament as a team.”
“It’s hard to talk about Tom because of how much puts into this,” Underwood said. “I’ll put his numbers against anybody at any level. To go do what he did and to be ultimately identified by players, because this is a team sport, are what they do in the win column. He’s our school’s all-time winningest player.....he’s got four rings, and that’s special.”
After being eliminated by Utah in the second round last season, the Lumberjacks feel that not only can they shake off the sting of that defeat, they can also stamp their claim among the nation’s premier programs.
“We’re playing our best basketball. Why would I think any different?” Underwood said. “This team is playing as well as anybody in the country.”
2016 All-Tournament Team
Jordan Capps, Forward – Southeastern Louisiana
Hameed Ali, Guard – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Clide Geffrard, Forward – Stephen F. Austin
Demetrious Floyd, Guard – Stephen F. Austin
Thomas Walkup, Guard/Forward – Stephen F. Austin (MVP)
POSTGAME QUOTES:
Stephen F. Austin Head Coach Brad Underwood
On the program’s success…
“It speak volumes of these seniors. In particular, you look at Thomas Walkup and Trey Pinkney, the success they’ve had with this program and the success they’ve had at home. They lost one home game, and I’m responsible for that. We lost the 24-hours of basketball game. There’s not enough words. You look at the attendance tonight and that was a lot of purple in there. I think that speaks volumes to the success that this program has had. The fans buy-in to these players and vice versa. We’ve got extremely high-character kids. To see this place packed with purple and it doesn’t matter where we go on the road, we bring a lot of people. I think it’s huge. It will impact the basketball program and us in recruiting. There’s nothing greater than Selection Sunday. I’m an old school guy; when they call your name the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I get goose bumps. It is something we will never ever take for granted. For these guys to be able to do that three times is so special. These guys have laid an unbelievable foundation for our program is about.”
On not being overlooked in the NCAA Tournament…
“We’re a better team than we were a year ago. I don’t know if that will show in the seeding. I know one thing that happened with us, is that no one wanted to play us in the regular season. That’s probably why our seed will be a little bit lower, but I hope not. This team is by far our best team. This team is very good. We’re going to go there. We’re not going to be afraid of the moment. We’re going to approach Monday’s practice just like we do every day and we’re going to show up to work. We’re going to figure out who that opponent is. That’s what this team does. That’s what this group of guys does. That’s what our locker room does. It’s one game at a time and that’s the way we’re going to approach it.”
Stephen F. Austin Senior Guard/Forward Thomas Walkup
On winning three straight tournament MVPs…
“That’s not something you take for granted. I think in about 10-15 years, I’ll look back and realize how special it is. Right now, it’s all about us making the tournament as a team. I’m happy to help.”
On keeping lead and not let Texas A&M-Corpus Corpus come back…
“Corpus is a good basketball team and they’re very capable of making big runs. At halftime, we talk about that and staying aggressive, and staying in attack mode, and that’s what we did.”
Stephen F. Austin Senior Guard Demetrious Floyd
On his expanded role this year…
“It feels a little different this year. I feel like I’m a bigger part of the team this year and Coach Underwood has more trust in me so there feels like a big difference [compared to last year].”
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Head Coach Willis Wilson
On tonight’s game…
“It boils down to the little things; little things they did little things we didn’t. Congratulations to Stephen F. Austin. They’ve been a great representative of the Southland Conference now for a good while and I just want to wish them well in the tournament. As far as the game for us tonight, like I said, it was a lot of little things that we just never got in sync on. They shot the ball extremely well, and they really were aggressive on the glass in the first half. I thought we did a lot of good things. We started off the game in the fashion that we need to, but we kind of got a little overextended and had a hard time regrouping. Sometimes, in those situations you need shots to go down just to keep your spirits alive, and we had a hard to finding ways to get the ball in the basket.”
On Stephen F. Austin…
“It’s a couple of things. One: they’re a confident team. Two: they’re a very experienced team. When you combine experience and confidence [you get their best shot.]”
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Sophomore Guard Ehab Amin
On when SFA started to pull away…
“Starting after the first media timeout, we weren’t really good on the glass. It was obvious. They crashed offensive rebounds a lot so I think that is the main thing that started off bad. That’s when we started feeling that we need to get better.”
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Sophomore Guard Joe Kilgore
On the Islander seniors…
“I’m very proud of our seniors. They’ve been here a while with Coach Wilson. Many of them started rebuilding the program. I just tried to be there for them and I’m proud of the season they put together.”