By Cody Stark
CORPUS CHRISTI — There is not much difference between the Sam Houston State Bearkats and the Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi Islanders.
Both teams feature some of the top scorers in the Southland Conference. Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi senior Kevin Palmer is the league’s second highest scorer at 20.6 points per game. Sam Houston State’s Corey Allmond (16.6 points) and Gilberto Clavell (15.5) are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.
The Kats and Islanders have notched wins this season against major conference opponents and both gave teams that were ranked No. 1 in the country at some point this year a run for their money.
A&M-Corpus; Christi opened the season with a convincing 67-43 victory over Oregon State of the Pac-10 and lost by six to Texas.
A little over a month ago, SHSU punished Southeastern Conference opponent Auburn 107-89 on the Tigers’ home court. A month before that, the Bearkats dropped a 10-point decision at Kentucky.
Oh, and there is one final thing. The Bearkats and Islanders both happen to be 5-0 in Southland Conference play.
Even though there are still plenty of conference games left on the schedule, one of those teams will get to deal the first blow to the other’s league championship hopes when Sam Houston State (13-5) and A&M-Corpus; Christi (11-8) meet up at the American Bank Center at 7 p.m.
“Well, 5-0 means a lot thus far,” SHSU junior Josten Crow said Friday. “We are tied for first, but it is still early. You can’t start talking about position until later in the season. They are 5-0, but we are just taking this one game at a time.”
So far, the one-game-at-a-time approach has worked well for Sam Houston. The Bearkats limped into conference play after back-to-back road losses at Wright State and Western Michigan.
But since then, everything has fallen into place. Thanks to one of the top field goal percentage defenses in the league, not to mention the top scoring offense, the Bearkats have won five straight.
That combination is going to be the key to knocking off the Islanders. A&M-Corpus; has won six in a row, including a 66-51 victory over Texas-Pan American in nonconference action on Monday.
“We just have to play the way we play,” Clavell said. “We have to keep up our field goal defense and hold people to less than 40 (percent). We can’t get into foul trouble. If we play the way we have been playing we have a good chance to win it.”
The Bearkats will keep their fingers crossed that Clavell can stay out of foul trouble tonight. He had his worst game of the season Wednesday night against Lamar.
Clavell fouled out of the game and failed to score for the first time this season. Sam Houston still rolled the Cardinals 90-63, but the Kats will need their low post scoring threat against the Islanders.
“My coaches told me I just had to play through it, not to hang my head,” Clavell added. “It was the worst game of my life. I’m looking at this as a new game. I feel better now.”
The Bearkats have to potential to score, but they need their defense to continue to improve and they need to slow down Palmer. The guard from Baltimore has led the Islanders in scoring in 16 of their 19 games this season.
“(Palmer) is a good player. We are just going to have to contain him,” Crow said. “Our team defense has been getting better. We have been holding people to under 40 percent (shooting), so we are going to try and do that to them.”
