The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

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January 26, 2010

Kats eye first place with Cards coming

By Cody Stark

Sam Houston State has a chance to pull into a first-place tie with Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi today, but the Bearkats need to take care of a familiar rival.

Lamar comes to Johnson Coliseum for a 7 p.m. tipoff today, and even though the Cardinals (2-3 in SLC, 10-10 overall) are struggling, they always give the Bearkats (4-0, 12-5) their best shot.

Last season, Sam Houston went on to finish second in the conference, while Lamar failed to make the league’s postseason tournament. But the two split the regular-season matchups, the Kats winning 112-105 in double overtime in Beaumont and the Cardinals taking a 60-57 decision in Huntsville.

Today’s game should be another good one.

“We have had some very exciting games with Lamar and most are high scoring,” SHSU head coach Bob Marlin said Tuesday. “The last one we had was here at home. They had not been playing very well and had some injuries, but came in and beat us while we were playing well. We always have good games.”

Lamar has dropped two straight following a 2-1 start to Southland Conference action. The Cardinals dropped their league opener 78-56 at Southeastern Louisiana, then rattled off two wins at home against Texas-Arlington and McNeese State by a combined four points.

The past two games, Lamar didn’t have an answer for A&M-Corpus; Christi, falling 81-64 on the road. The Cardinals almost got back on the winning track, but dropped a 97-92 heartbreaker in overtime at home against Texas State this past Saturday.

Despite it’s rocky SLC start, Lamar has some talented players that can score. Point guard Anthony Miles is averaging 14.3 points per game followed by forward Justin Nabors (13.9) and guard Kendrick Harris (12.3).

The Bearkats have won four straight thanks to a stiff defense. Sam Houston is currently ranked third in field goal percentage defense (40 percent) in conference only games.

“We are giving p 39.8 percent and that is certainly an improvement of what we were giving up earlier in the season,” Marlin added. “The other night (a 67-64 victory over UTA) we only gave up 18 field goals. We have really cut back on the number of field goals we have given up, so obviously we are playing better field goal defense.”

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