Lamar Snaps 11-Game Non-Conference Road Losing Streak With Win at Louisiana-Lafayette
Lamar snapped a seven-game losing streak vs. Louisiana-Lafayette and also ended an 11-game non-conference losing streak in road games. UT Arlington survived against Texas Wesleyan and Northwestern State picked up a win vs. East Texas Baptist. Stephen F. Austin came up just short at Texas A&M.
Lamar 78, Louisiana-Lafayette 68
LAFAYETTE, La. ? Kenny Dawkins scored a career-high 29 points and was perfect on 12 attempts from the free throw line in leading Lamar to a 78-68 win over Louisiana-Lafayette at the Cajundome Tuesday night.
With Lamar holding a 62-58 lead and 6:22 to play, the Cardinals went on a 9-2 run to extend their lead to 11 with 2:24 remaining. Dawkins had eight points on two jumpers and four free throws in the stretch. Lamar then iced the game from the charity stripe as Dawkins and Brandon McThay made 8-of-9 over the final 1:29.
McThay posted 16 points and two steals, while the inside dup of Jay Brown and Tristan Worrell combined for 25 points and 13 rebounds.
Lamar (2-0) shot 45 percent from the floor and a solid 74 percent from the free throw line. Lamar also held a 36-34 edge on the glass while outscoring the bigger Louisiana group 28-18 in the paint.
But the Cardinals took care of the ball as they committed eight total turnovers and just one in the second half.
Travis Bureau made five 3-pointers for Louisiana-Lafayette en route to a team-high 24 points. Tyren Johnson had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Louisiana-Lafayette (0-2) shot 42 percent for the game.
The win snapped a seven-game losing streak in Lafayette as Lamar took a 40-39 lead in the all-time series. Lamar also snapped an 11-game non-conference road losing streak.
Lamar will return home to play host to the Denver Pioneers (0-1) on Saturday night. Tip-off at the Montagne Center is set for 7:05 p.m.
UT Arlington 74, Texas Wesleyan 71
ARLINGTON, Texas ? Two defensive stops late in the game and a missed 3-point attempt at the buzzer by a former Maverick gave the UT Arlington men’s basketball team a narrow 74-71 victory over Texas Wesleyan on Tuesday night at Texas Hall. Junior guard Brandon Long led the Mavericks in scoring for the second straight game with 19 points, including 4-of-10 from 3-point range.
UT Arlington improves to 2-0 overall on the season, marking only the third 2-0 start to the season during the last 15 years. The Mavs also began the season 2-0 in 2007-08 and in 2000-01. Texas Wesleyan, the No. 15 ranked team in the preseason NAIA national poll, drops to 1-2 overall.
“We did some good things in the game, but obviously rebounding was a huge problem for us and we need to fix that no question,” UT Arlington head coach Scott Cross said. “There are a lot of things we need to work on to get to the next level. You have to give credit to Texas Wesleyan, they are a top 20 program in NAIA, and they are a very good basketball team.”
After Long’s seventh field goal gave the Mavs a four-point lead, 72-68, with 1:54 remaining, UT Arlington put together two straight defensive stops which helped lead to the victory.
Junior J.D. Davis gave the Mavericks their first defensive stop with a blocked shot on a Chris Berry jumper in the lane, and then junior post Tommy Moffitt ended another potential scoring opportunity for the Rams with a key defensive rebound to hold the Mavericks’ four-point lead with 13 seconds remaining.
Terrell Henry, a 6-foot-4 wing for Texas Wesleyan, began his collegiate career at UT Arlington from 2005-07. Henry, now a junior with the Rams, put Texas Wesleyan within striking distance with a three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining to play, cutting the Mavs’ lead to 74-71.
After two missed free throws by UT Arlington forward Anthony Vereen, Henry had a chance to tie the game with a good look at a three-point attempt, but his shot was long as the buzzer sounded to give the Mavericks the victory.
The Rams dominated the boards with a 45-33 advantage, but UT Arlington outscored Texas Wesleyan 15-4 in points off the bench. Three Texas Wesleyan players (Henry, Kennith Gober and Berry) combined for 53 points and 16 rebounds on 18-of-48 shooting.
The Mavericks held a 40-33 lead at halftime, but were outscored 38-34 in the second half. Vereen tallied 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and led the Mavs going 8-of-13 from the free throw line.
UT Arlington also received 10 points from junior guard Roge’r Guignard, and eight points each from Moffitt and junior Marquez Haynes. Sophomore point guard Jeremy Smith tallied six points and led UT Arlington with seven assists and two steals.
Texas Wesleyan leaned on Berry (24 points, 11 rebounds), Henry (17 points) and Gober (12 points, three steals) for the majority of their production.
UT Arlington will play 10 of its next 11 non-conference games away from Texas Hall beginning on Saturday, Nov. 22, traveling to Eastern Washington for a 9:05 p.m., Central, tip-off at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
The Mavs will then return home for their final home non-conference game on Tuesday, Nov. 25, hosting UT Tyler for a 7 p.m. tip-off at Texas Hall.
Northwestern State 87, East Texas Baptist 65
NATCHITOCHES, La. ? Northwestern State didn’t play exhibition games before starting the 2008-09 basketball season, but the Demons’ 87-65 win Tuesday night at Prather Coliseum over visiting East Texas Baptist fit the mold.
Eleven players scored and 17 played as Northwestern made its homecourt debut in front of 2,142 fans while cruising by the Division III Tigers.
Keithan Hancock scored 14 and Devin White 12 for the Demons (1-1), who got 10 apiece by Micheal McConathy and Deividas Petravicius. Hancock, playing 19 minutes off the bench, had the most playing time for Northwestern.
Jeremiah Pojah and James Morman each scored 11 for the Tigers (1-1), who had 12 shots blocked and connected on just 28 percent overall.
Northwestern led 36-18 at halftime and sank 7 of its first 8 shots in the second half to roll to a 51-24 advantage just over three minutes into the final period. The Demons shot 49 percent overall, including 42 percent (10 of 24) on 3-pointers.
“We played about 16-18 minutes of pretty good team defense in the first half,” said 10th-year Demons coach Mike McConathy, picking up his 498th overall victory in 26 seasons of college coaching. “We didn’t maintain our focus very well after, but we did get to give some more extended minutes to some of our younger players and that is a positive.”
The Demons had 11 players with at least 10 minutes, and 15 with at least six minutes. The Tigers also went deep into their bench, using 15 players and giving 10 at least 10 minutes.
The margin was 30 points twice, the first on a Hancock 3-pointer for an 82-52 advantage with 5:06 remaining.
“This is a good game for us to play. Coach (Bert) West does a great job at ETBU and their style is similar to ours, so it’s a good teaching opportunity for both of us,” said McConathy. “We know his guys are schooled on fundamentals and that makes doing the right things much more important than it might be in a game where we might have an overall advantage in talent. They compete hard for 40 minutes, and we both got to use a lot of players to help them get ready for bigger games down the road.”
Northwestern played its only home game until December. The Demons begin two weekends of round-robin play in the LSU Invitational Friday at 4 against Centenary, meeting the host Tigers Sunday at 2 p.m. Next weekend, they’ll play Alcorn State Nov. 28 and Troy a day later at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge.
Texas A&M 55, Stephen F. Austin 48
COLLEGE STATION, Texas ? Josh Alexander and Matt Kingsley combined for 38 points, but Stephen F. Austin shot just 29.8 percent from the field Tuesday in a 55-48 defeat at Texas A&M.
The Lumberjacks evened their record at 1-1 with the defeat, while Texas A&M moved to 2-0 on the season.
SFA never trailed by more than seven until the final seconds, and the score was tied at 42 with five minutes left. But only five Lumberjacks hit shots from the floor, and no one but Kingsley and Alexander hit more than one. In 32 games a year ago, SFA never shot worse than 30 percent.
"A&M played great defense, but a big part of our problem was our shot selection, and that's something we've got to correct," said SFA head coach Danny Kaspar.
SFA went to the locker room at halftime locked in a 29-29 tie, thanks largely to the scoring of its top two returning players. Seniors Kingsley and Alexander led all players at the break with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
But Alexander was 3-of-6 in the second period - all from 3-point range - and Kingsley failed to connect from the field after halftime.
"They did a good job of shutting Matt down (after halftime), and nobody stepped up besides Josh," Kaspar said. "I'm probably going to look at this tape later and say, "How'd we stay so close?"
Kingsley and Alexander were the only two players to record field goals until Girod Adams hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 15 seconds left in the first half. Aaron Smith's free throw at the 16:41 mark provided the only other scoring of the half.
The Lumberjacks took their largest lead of the half at the 11:52 mark on the first of four first-half threes by Alexander. SFA held the advantage A&M took the lead, 16-15, on a 3-pointer by Donald Sloan with 7:08 to play. Alexander answered with a triple to put SFA back in front, and the lead changed hands just once more down the stretch before Adams' 3-pointer tied it at 29.
The Lumberjacks shot just 36 percent from the floor in the opening period. SFA shot worse than that in the first half only four times all of the 2007-08 season.
SFA's shooting woes continued into the second half, as the Lumberjack missed their first three shots after the break. Alexander broke the drought and the halftime score with a 3-pointer nearly two minutes in, but the Lumberjacks shot just 14 percent from the field in the half's first 12 minutes.
During the same stretch, the Aggies were only slightly better at 23.5 percent, but gradually extended their lead to 42-35, the largest of the night, with 8:30 remaining.
SFA pulled to within five at 42-37 on a pair of Kingsley free throws at the seven-minute mark. Three possessions and two A&M turnovers later, sophomore Eddie Williams got his first points of the game with a three with 5:20 left. A&M's Dash Harris was whistled for a technical foul immediately following Williams' 3-pointer, and Kingsley sank both free throws to tie the game at 42.
Josh Carter put the Aggies back in front with a pair of free throws at the other end. Kingsley had his shot from down low blocked on the ensuing possession, and A&M got two free throws by Carter to take a 46-42 lead with 3:40 remaining.
A&M got a huge bucket with 1:09 left when Nathan Walkup hit a long jumper with the shot clock winding down to give the Aggies a 48-42 lead. SFA turned the ball over on its next possession and was forced to foul to stop the clock. Walkup was the player fouled and hit both free throws to make it a 50-45 game.
SFA's Aaron Smith checked in for Nick Shaw, who fouled out putting Walkup on the stripe, and immediately hit a 3-pointer to bring SFA back to within five points. Sloan hit both foul shots at the other end, but Alexander canned a 3-pointer to keep the `Jacks within four at 52-48 with 12 seconds left.
Sloan was pure again on a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game, and SFA could not score again. Davis sank one foul shot to set the final score.
The Lumberjacks will be back in action next Tuesday when they travel to take on Louisiana-Monroe.