Central Arkansas, Texas State Earn Victories
Central Arkansas set a school record with 15 three pointers in a 110-51 victory over Haskell Indian Nations University while Texas State won for the fourth consecutive game Tuesday night. In other Southland Conference action, Houston downed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 85-65 at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Central Arkansas 110, Haskell Indian Nations University 51
CONWAY, Ark. ? One three-point record fell and another one was tied as Central Arkansas routed Haskell Indian Nations University 110-51 Tuesday at the Farris Center.
The Bears (7-6) made a school-record 15 three-pointers, shooting 55.6 percent from beyond the arc. The old mark was 13 set in 1995 and tied in 1999. Junior guard Marcus Pillow of Russellville made a pair, which ties him for the UCA career individual record of 174.
Six different players nailed threes for UCA, with junior guard Brooks Taylor hitting a career-high 6-of-8.
“The first half was awesome,” UCA coach Rand Chappell said. “Whoever took it, it seemed to be going down. Brooks obviously had a big game from the three-point line. King Cannon made three. We had a good stretch there where Dewan (Clayborn) made one, Chris Henson made one. It was a nice combination. A lot of guys have to do it to break a record like that.
“Shooting, and offense in general, we feel like we need to improve and get better in that area and get our confidence up. Maybe tonight was good for us there.”
The Bears had their season high in three-pointers by halftime, connecting on 12-of-18 in the first half to run out to a 66-33 lead.
Taylor, from Monette, was 5-of-6 at the half. UCA’s previous season high was 10 against Vanderbilt. Pillow had two attempts to break the record in the second half but misfired on both.
“I got onto one of the guys in the huddle about not reversing the ball when he was wide open,” Chappell said. “Here we’ve got a guy that’s about to break the all-time school record and we can’t hit him when he’s wide open. So the guys got that in their minds.
“But then I also told Marcus, he’s got 40-some games left to do it. That’s very impressive with all the good players that have been through here in the last 20 years, that he’s got that already done at this point in his career.”
UCA reached the 100-point mark on a dunk by freshman Chris Henson at the 3:20 mark, the first time the Bears have scored 100 points since Dec. 7, 2005 against Arkansas Baptist. The Bears handed out a season-high 32 assists, the fifth-best effort in school history, with Pillow leading the way with six.
Twelve players scored for UCA, led by Taylor’s 19 points. Henson had a career-high 13 points, while junior King Cannon had 11 points off the bench and junior Mitch Rueter and sophomore Chris Brown added 10 each.
Senior center Brian Marks blocked four shots as the Bears finished with a season-high 9 blocks.
Haskell, an NAIA school from Lawrence, Kan., was missing several top players Tuesday night. Dominick Tiger-Cortes led the Indians with 12 points, while Vince Chavez added 11.
“I think it was very good for our team,” Chappell said. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into a season and very seldom do you get a chance to take a breath and enjoy it a little bit, maybe have a little bit of fun with it. They came in a little short-handed tonight, missing a couple of Division I transfers. But I was glad to see our guys play as well as they did.”
UCA opens Southland Conference play on Saturday on the road at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Game time is 7 p.m. from the American Bank Center.
Texas State 82, Northern Colorado 59
SAN MARCOS, Texas- The Texas State men’s basketball team used a balanced offensive attack and strong defensive effort to avenge an earlier loss this season and beat Northern Colorado 82-59 in Strahan Coliseum Tuesday night.
The Bobcats had four players score in double figures and four players grab each grab five rebounds as the held a 41-31 rebounding advantage. Senior guard Corey Jefferson scored a season-high 16 points to and grabbed five rebounds, while Cameron Johnson and Brandon Bush added 14 points each and Brent Benson added 11 points off the bench. Ty Gough led Texas State with seven rebounds, while Johnson and Dylan Moseley added six each.
Defensively, Texas State held the Bears to 40.9 percent shooting from the field, including just 15.4 percent behind the three-point line, after Northern Colorado came into the game ranked eighth nationally in three-point shooting as a team. The Bobcats also forced 24 turnovers and collecting seven steals.
“This was a great team win for us,” Texas State head coach Doug Davalos said. “We went out, attacked them defensively and the results speak for themselves.
“They are a very good three-point shooting team, but we contested most of their three-point shots and made them look for the second and third options on offense. It was a great team effort all the way around.”
The Bobcats jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first three minutes and led 28-14 with 11:55 remaining in the first half as Texas State hit 10 of their first 15 shots from the field including all four of their three-point attempts, and all four of their free throw attempts.
The Bobcats used an inside-outside attack offensively to seize control of the game as Corey Jefferson opened the game hitting both of his three-point shots and Brandon Bush and Ty Gough each scored four points in the paint to pace Texas State’s early efforts. John Rybak added a three-pointer of his own while Cameron Johnson made a baseline jumper.
Northern Colorado looked like they were going to get back into contention when Texas State had a four-minute scoring drought and the Bears climbed back to within 37-26 with 3:33 remaining in the first half.
But, Texas State closed the half with a 7-2 run to take a 44-28 lead at the half and never looked back.
The second half began just like the first half did with Bush scoring on a three-point lead to open up a 47-28 lead. The Bears tried to get back into contention, but every time they looked like they might get back into contention, Texas State had an answer.
The Bobcats held a 61-41 lead with 14:00 minutes left to play when Northern Colorado scored five straight points to close to within 15. But, Benson hit one of his two free throws for Texas State and Jefferson nailed a trey to push the lead right back to 65-45 with 10:06 left to play.
“I thought it was important that we didn’t relax and let them back into the game like we might have in the past,” Davalos said. “We continued playing aggressively and there was no let down tonight.”
The Bears never threatened again as the Bobcats went on to win 82-59 to avenge a 105-93 loss at Northern Colorado earlier this year.
The win was Texas State’s fourth straight win as the Bobcats improved their record to 7-6, while Northern Colorado suffered its third straight loss and fell to 5-11 overall this season. Texas State will open its Southland Conference schedule this Saturday against UT Arlington at 4 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum.
Houston 85, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 65
HOUSTON, Texas ? The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men’s basketball team closed out its five-game road trip Tuesday night with an 85-65 loss to Houston at the Hofheinz Pavilion in its final non-conference game of the year.
With the loss, the Islanders fall to 6-9 on the season. Houston improves to 9-3 on the season and is 6-1 at home.
“We knew coming in that Houston was a good offensive team and we didn’t do much to slow them down,” Islander head coach Perry Clark said. “We didn’t do a good job of adjusting to their pace.”
A&M-Corpus Christi led briefly at 8-5 after Justin Reynolds and Kevin Palmer each converted three-point plays.
Kelvin Lewis scored four straight points to give the hosts the lead 9-8. They would not trail again
The game would remain tight through the first 11 minutes of the opening half as four straight points by Palmer ? a jumper and a pair of free throws made it a two-point game, 23-21, with just over nine minutes to go.
The Islanders would go cold over the next five minutes as Houston scored eight straight and closed the half with a 20-8 run to make it a 10-point game with just over five minutes to go in the half at 31-21 as Aubrey Coleman converted a three-point play.
TAMUCC twice pulled to within eight on a basket by Tim Green and a pair of free throws Jawan Nelson. The Islanders would get no closer the rest of half. While going 8-of-9 from the foul line, they would hit just 29.4 percent of their first half shots.
Houston shot 45.5 percent from the field and was 11-of-13 from the foul line. The Cougars, who commit the fewest in the nation, had just six in the first half while forcing 10.
In the second half, the Islanders pulled to within single digits on nine occasions the last coming on a putback by Horace Bond with just over 15 minutes to go.
The Cougars answered with a 24-6 run over the next eight minutes to break the game open.
“I thought we started to do a better job offensively early in the second half,” Clark said. “We just never got consecutive stops to make more of a run.”
Palmer led the Islanders with 17 points just missing his fourth straight 20-point game. Reynolds responded from back-to-back scoreless to tally 13 points. LaMarr Drake and Demond Watt each had nine points. Watt led the team with 10 rebounds to just miss a double-double and the Islanders out-rebounded the Cougars 45-35. TAMUCC had 20 offensive boards.
Coleman and Lewis led Houston with 22 and 20 points, respectively. Marcus Cousin added 14 and Qa’rraan Calhoun 13. Coleman and Cousin each had double-doubles with 10 rebounds.
After playing its last five nonconference games on the road, the Islanders return home to open their season in Southland Conference on Saturday. TAMUCC opens with Central Arkansas at 7 p.m. before hosting Texas State Jan. 14.