Sam Houston State basketball fans witnessed the men’s and women’s basketball teams scrimmage among themselves at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum as part of Program Council’s Bearkat Madness.
The women squared off first against each other in a brief five-minute period. The teams were split up into team orange and team white. During that game, the score was 6-2 in team white’s favor, who eventually pulled it off in the friendly battle against each other.
The men’s team took the court next in their five-minute run. Alley-oops, no look passes, dunks, and trick plays took place during the scrimmage.
Following the mini scrimmages, both men and women competed in the three point shootout against each other. On the men’s team, it came down to senior guard Jabari Peters and senior guard Kaheem Ransom, both preseason Southland Conference first team selecitons. Ransom took down Peters in extra regulation due to a tie.
“It was a great turn out and it was fun,” Peters said. “We finally were able to do something for the student body.”
Over on the women’s side, junior guard Amanda Barnes won the three point competition for the women’s team but lost against Ransom for the overall three-point championship. After the three-point shootout, sophomore guard Dakarai Henderson, freshman guard Jamal Williams and senior guard DeMarcus Gatlin went against each other in a dunk contest.
Henderson won the competition after battling in the second round against Williams in a great showing.
Program Council planned the event that ended up turning better than expected.
“The event actually came out pretty good,” junior kinesiology major Nelson Ayodej said. “I was kind of skeptical at first because we’ve never done it at Sam Houston, but everybody played their part and came through.”
After Bearkat Madness, Program Council sees room for improvement in future events.
“Next time [we’ll do it at] midnight and more people, and hopefully more involvement from the event,”Ayodeji said.
The men’s basketball lost to Stephen F. Austin State last season in the conference championship game, which left a sour taste in players’ mouths. As fun as the team had in Tuesday’s event, the Bearkats are hoping to make another run for the March Madness this season.
“We expect to be exactly where we were last season in the conference championship game, but this time we want to finish it,” Peters said.
