|
Men's Basketball:
Sam Houston State Uses Second Half Surge to Defeat UC Irvine
Dec. 20, 2007 HUNTSVILLE, Texas --- Senior guard Shamir McDaniel scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half to lead Sam Houston State past UC Irvine, 61-54, in a non-conference game Thursday night at Johnson Coliseum in Huntsville, Texas. McDaniel was 4 of 5 from the field, including 3 of 3 on threes, in the final 20 minutes as the Bearkats (10-0) ran their non-conference home winning streak to 43 games, second-longest in the nation. Senior forward Ryan Bright added 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for Sam Houston State. The Bearkats shot 52.4 percent from the field in the second half, hitting 5 of 7 threes, in erasing a 27-25 halftime deficit. Junior guard Trey Harris scored 13 points in 25 minutes off the bench to lead UCI (4-6). Senior forward Patrick Sanders added 12 points and four rebounds while senior center Darren Fells also scored 12 points and had four assists. Junior forward Kevin Bland pulled down a team-high eight rebounds for UCI. The Anteaters built a 21-13 first-half lead on a basket by Fells with 7:53 left before the Bearkats cut the margin to two at halftime. Fells scored nine of his points in the opening half. Sam Houston State took the lead for good at 32-30 on a McDaniel trey with 18:44 remaining in the second half. The Bearkats built an eight-point lead at 51-43 on a three-pointer by Ashton Mitchell with 5:28 left and the closest UCI could come was five points, the last time at 59-54 on a layup by Sanders with six seconds remaining. The Anteaters shot 40 percent from the field for the game while the Bearkats hit 43.5 percent of their field goals. Sam Houston State did make 8 of 16 shots from three-point range, including 5 of 7 in the second half. The Bearkats, who entered the game out-rebounding their opponents by an average of 44.9 to 32.2, won a close battle of the boards with UCI, 36-33.
"I thought we received good play off the bench from Trey Harris, but Sam Houston State is a seasoned club and we couldn't make a basket when we really needed one," UCI head coach Pat Douglass said. "We rebounded the ball fairly well but their ability to hit the three when they needed it was a big factor in the game." UCI faces Texas A&M (10-1) Saturday at 11:00 a.m. (PST) in College Station, Texas. The Aggies are ranked 11th this week in the ESPN/USA Today poll and 14th by the Associated Press. |
