The Bearkats ended last week at five and one in conference play, with games against the then undefeated SFA Lumberjacks, and the struggling three and two Abilene Christian University Wildcats.
SFA went on a 13 to two run to start the game and the Bearkats weren’t able to find their way back in the first half, and went to the locker room down 44-29.
The Bearkats outscored SFA in the second half, but the 15 point deficit was too much for the Bearkats to come back, resulting in a 76-64 loss.
The Bearkats were once again led by their two leading scorers, forward Aurimas Majauskas and guard Dakari Henderson.
Majauskas had 17 points, two rebounds, one block and was six for seven from the free throw line in his 25 minutes.
Henderson had 14 points, six rebounds, five steals, and one assist in his 34 minutes.
Back to Johnson Coliseum, the Bearkats looked to bounce back in a big way against the struggling ACU squad.
ACU played the Bearkats close at first, with the game deadlocked at 13.8 minutes in.
The Bearkats finished the half on a 21 to six run, and went to the locker room with the lead 34-19.
Both teams came out swinging in the second half, but the Bearkats once again outscored ACU by four points, resulting in a 72-51 win.
SHSU stifled the Wildcats’ offense, allowing only 32.7 percent shooting efforts on the night while the Bearkats shot 48.1 percent from the floor.
Henderson and Majauskas once again both had big nights combining for 31 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.
The player who had the biggest night for the Bearkats was junior transfer guard Jovante’ Spivey. Spivey put up 18 points to lead the team and the game, as well as four rebounds and four assists in only 29 minutes of play.
“We’re starting to see what Jovante Spivey can do,” Head Coach Jason Hooten said. “He put up some big numbers in junior college and we’ve seen dashes of that in some of our games this year. We’re looking for more big nights out of him.”
The Bearkats finished the week at six and two, and have a similar slate of games this week.
Up first on Saturday are the undefeated in conference play Houston Baptist University Huskies, and then on Monday the Bearkats play the Lamar Cardinals who only have two wins in conference play.
HBU is led by redshirt senior guard Anthony Odunsi.
Odunsi has been their leading scorer in every conference game so far this season. Odunsi is averaging 21 points, four assists, four rebounds and is shooting 47 percent from the floor in 30 minutes in conference games this season.
The Bearkats need to keep him off of the free throw line where he is shooting 84 percent this season.
HBU also possess a talented defense, holding opponents to shooting only 36 percent from the floor in conference play.
Lamar is struggling this season, only shooting 39.8 percent from the floor in conference games.
In Lamar’s two conference wins freshman guard Nick Garth led the way scoring an average of 18 points.
One place this Lamar squad been consistent with is their outstanding rebounds. Lamar leads the southland with an average of almost 43 rebounds a game compared to Sam’s 37. Lamar is lead on the boards by tenacious senior forward Dontavious Sears.
The keys to victory for the Bearkats against HBU is to force Odunsi to take three- point shots, and use passing to get good shots for the playmakers.
SHSU will travel to Houston this Saturday to play against HBU at 7 p.m.