By Cody Stark
Sam Houston State guard Shamir McDaniel couldn’t have picked a better night to have the best game of his career.
With the Bearkats down 30-27 in the opening minute of the second half, McDaniel saw an opportunity to seize control of the game. The senior from San Antonio scored eight unanswered points, including two key 3-pointers, to help Sam Houston pull away for a 61-54 victory over UC-Irvine on Thursday night at Johnson Coliseum.
McDaniel matched his jersey number with a career-high 22 points and was 4-of-5 from long range, as the Bearkats improved to 10-0 and kept the nation’s second longest nonconference home winning streak alive at 43 games.
“We were sluggish in the first half and only scored about 25 points, I think,” McDaniel said. “We I just wanted to come out and create a little spark in the second half. Coach (Bob Marlin) was talking earlier this week about creating your own momentum, and we felt like we needed to get everybody excited and to create some enthusiasm.
“Once we started rolling, we were able to take the game over.”
There was a stretch of about four minutes midway through the first half that nothing seemed to be going the Bearkats way. The Anteaters (4-6) took advantage and went on a 9-1 run to go up 21-13 after a short jumper by center Darren Fells at the 7:54 mark.
Sam Houston finally began to pull things together and fought back to tie the game at 25 thanks to baskets by Reggie Rawlins, McDaniel, Bright and DeLuis Ramirez with just over a minute to go before halftime.
The Anteaters took a 27-25 lead into the break on a jumper by Trey Harris as time expired, then went up five on a trey by Brett Lauer to start the second half.
That’s when McDaniel took over and put SHSU up for good at 35-30 with a 3 at the top of the key with just under 18 minutes left in the contest.
“They started off hitting a bunch of shots, and they had like 21 points with eight minutes left in the first half,” said Bright, who came close to a triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. “Coach said during a timeout they were on the way to getting the most points we have given up in a half.
“After that, we came out and got like six stops in a row and started scoring more. (McDaniel) started scoring, and we picked it up from there.”
The Bearkats shot only 36 percent from the field in the first half, but shot 52 percent in the second. SHSU was also hot from behind the arc, connecting on 8-of-16 attempts, or 50 percent, from 3.
But the biggest difference was that the Bearkats played better defense after the break. The Anteaters shot 42 percent in the first as opposed to 39 in the second. Sam Houston also controlled the boards, outrebounding UC-Irvine 36-33.
Bearkats center John Gardiner had a solid night with eight points, including a break away dunk that put SHSU up 10 with 3:23 left in the game. Ramirez finished with nine points and seven rebounds in the victory.
“We talked at halftime that there is always an opportunity in every game that the game is out there and whoever wants to grab it can get it,” Marlin said. “Our team has done a super job of that the past two years, and I told them at halftime that it was there right now. We were very positive as a group and went out in the second half and got the lead.
“We called a time out to let them think about it for a while and we never gave that lead up.”
It was a big win for the Kats, who will take a few days off for the holidays before flying out on Christmas night for a two-game road swing to California. Sam Houston will play San Diego State on Dec. 28 and Loyola Marymount on Dec. 30.
