By Cody Stark
Looking at the numbers, it is hard to believe that Central Arkansas is 1-7 in Southland Conference play.
The Bears (7-15 overall) have three players averaging more than 11 points per game. Senior forward Mitch Rueter leads the team with 12.4 points per contest and junior forward Tadre Sheppard (12.3) and junior guard Chris Poellnitz (11.6) are close behind.
For some reason or another, Central Arkansas isn’t getting much more production offensively. The Bears are last in the SLC in scoring (63.5 points per game).
But UCA does have the fourth best scoring defense in the league, allowing only 66.3 points. That makes the Bears a dangerous team when they come to Johnson Coliseum today to try and hand Sam Houston State its first SLC loss. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
“(The Bears) have a bunch of new faces,” Bearkats head coach Bob Marlin said Friday. “Rueter is one of the best players in the conference. He is playing really well, having an all-conference type season. Tadre Sheppard could be the best athlete in our conference. He is a high-major athlete that blocks shots and is the top offensive rebounder in the league.
“They have 10 new guys, but they are more athletic than they were last season. They have lost some games that could have gone the other way, but they are going through some growing pains.”
Sam Houston is off to its best SLC start in school history at 7-0 and are 15-5 overall. During their current seven-game winning streak, the Bearkats have found many different ways to win.
Sam Houston has held off charges from Stephen F. Austin, Southeastern Louisiana, Texas-Arlington and Texas-San Antonio. But the Bearkats have also rolled Texas State, Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi by double figures.
“This team has set their defense as a goal, and if we are going to win, we have talked about being solid defensively,” Marlin said. “Until the second half (of Saturday’s 73-67 win over UTSA), we have played pretty good defense in conference. That has been consistent.
“We have a good group. They are working hard and they genuinely like each other. Like any family, we have our faults, but they work well together and want to win.”
One of the reasons the Bearkats have been successful this season is that they aren’t one-dimensional on offense. The past few seasons, Sam Houston has relied on outside shooting to go with a stout defense.
With the emergence of junior forward Gilberto Clavell (15.9 points per game) as one of the SLC’s top inside-scoring threats, the Bearkats have won games despite struggling from outside.
That’s a nice complement to senior guards Corey Allmond (16.4 points), Ashton Mitchell (12.7) and junior forward Josten Crow (7.2), who are all shooting better than 40 percent from behind the arc. It is also the reason the Bearkats boast the top-scoring offense in the SLC at 78.9 points per game.
The key is keeping Clavell out of foul trouble.
“(Clavell) is real aggressive and sometimes that gets him in foul trouble and he gets frustrated. We saw that last week when he didn’t score against Lamar,” Marlin said. “But we were shooting the ball so well that we won big. The other night, he scores 27 on 10-of-12 shooting from the field and we beat San Antonio by six. We didn’t shoot well.
“For us to be successful, we need him to score around the basket. Hopefully that will continue.”
Bearkat notes
Welcome back Kats — Former Sam Houston State men’s basketball players will gather for a reunion at today’s game.
The players will be introduced to fans in a special halftime ceremony and meet with the current Sam Houston team in a post-game reception following the contest.
Players expected to return include Shamir McDaniel, Ryan Bright, Jeremy Burkhalter, Seneca Wall, Aaron Wade, Wilder Auguste, Robert Shannon, Ryan Griffin and others.
