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Lumberjacks To Host UTSA
Feb. 8, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Texas-San Antonio at SFA
Game Information Best in the West: The Southland Conference West Division-leading Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team will open a two-game home stand Saturday with a game against divisional foe Texas-San Antonio. The game against the Roadrunners is set for a 6 p.m. start. The Lumberjacks bring an 18-3 overall record and a 6-2 mark in SLC play to the contest. UTSA enters the game with an 8-12 season mark and a 2-5 conference record. Last Game: SFA collected the program's first victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday, when the Lumberjacks knocked off the Islanders, 71-62, on the road. Junior center Matt Kingsley scored a game-high 29 points and led SFA in rebounding with six boards. Kingsley went 9-of-15 from the field and hit 11-of-12 free throw attempts, leading the Lumberjacks on a night when the team shot 51.2 percent from the field and 83.3 percent from the foul line. Junior forward Josh Alexander and senior forward Scott Weaver joined Kingsley in double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Sophomore point guard Eric Bell added six points and seven assists. vs. Texas-San Antonio: UTSA holds a 22-9 advantage over SFA in the all-time series. Under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks are 4-9 against UTSA. SFA is 4-6 in the last 10 meetings, but the Roadrunners have a six-game winning streak that dates to the championship game of the 2003-04 Southland Conference Tournament. UTSA swept the season series last year, including a 54-49 verdict in Nacogdoches in the regular-season finale. The Roadrunners: After winning two of its first three Southland Conference games, UTSA is currently trying to fight its way out of a four-game skid. The Roadrunners have played the last six games without junior forward Travis Gabbidon, who was the team's leading scorer through the first 14 games of the season. UTSA is coming off a 70-54 home loss to Sam Houston State on Wednesday. The Coaches: SFA is led by head coach Danny Kaspar. Kaspar is in his eighth season at the helm for the Lumberjacks. He holds a record of 126-93 (.575) at SFA and has a 345-145 (.704) overall record in his 17th season as a collegiate head coach. Texas-San Antonio is coached by Brooks Thompson. Thompson is 15-34 (.306) in his second season at UTSA and has a 70-48 (.593) record in four years overall as a college coach. Up Next: SFA will play its last SLC East Division games of the regular season next week. The Lumberjacks will host Central Arkansas on Wednesday in a 7 p.m. game, then travel to take on Northwestern State Saturday. That game is set to tip at 2 p.m. News and Notes • SPECIAL SEASON: SFA's 18-3 mark is the best record for a Lumberjack team since becoming a Division I program in the 1986-87 season. It is also tied for the best record through 21 games for SFA since the Lumberjacks went 19-2 through the first 21 games of the 1972-73 season. SFA finished that year 25-3. • FAST START: SFA opened the season with a 12-1 record, the best start to a season since the program joined the NCAA Division I ranks. The fantastic start was the best 13-game mark for the program since the 1981-82 season, when the Lumberjacks opened the season with seven straight wins and went on to post a 14-1 record before finally recording their second loss of the season in the 16th game. SFA's 10-game winning streak earlier this season was the program's first double-digit run since the 'Jacks won 13 in a row during the 2002-03 season. • RANK AND FILE: SFA moved up from No. 20 to No. 16 in Monday's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. This is SFA's ninth straight week in the rankings -- the longest stay in school history -- after entering the poll at No. 25 on Dec. 10, following the Lumberjacks' upset win at Oklahoma. SFA then moved up in the poll each week, jumping to 22nd, 16th, then 11th, before cracking the Top 10 a month ago. • VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: SFA received a vote in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll in each of the last two weeks of December. This marked the first time since the 2003-04 season for the Lumberjacks to earn a vote in a national Top 25 poll. That year, SFA earned one vote in the Associated Press poll. • TOP GUNS: As Josh Alexander and Matt Kingsly go, so go the Lumberjacks. SFA's three losses this season have one thing in common: the Lumberjacks' top two scorers have been contained offensively, on average, in all three losing verdicts. While Alexander averages 16.9 points per game in SFA's 18 wins, along with Kingsley's 16.6 points per win, their averages dip to 14.3 and 11.3 points per game, respectively, in the Lumberjacks' three defeats. The scoring averages for SFA's next three highest scorers fluctuate less than a full point per game from wins to losses. • D-UP: SFA's defense has been dominant this season. The Lumberjacks have held opponents to an average of 54.5 points per game, which leads the Southland Conference. SFA ranked second in the nation in scoring defense entering this week's action. While good defense has long been a mark of Danny Kaspar-coached teams, the Lumberjacks have never finished higher than 12th in the national rankings in terms of scoring defense. This season, the Lumberjacks have held 13 opponents to fewer than 60 points and have only allowed one team to break 70. SFA has held opponents to 38.6 percent shooting from the field and ranked 15th in the country in that category, entering this week. • STINGY ON THE GLASS: The Lumberjacks give up the fewest rebounds per game in the Southland Conference. SFA is currently allowing its opponents just 31.0 rebounds per game. • DOUBLE-UP: SFA posted just three double-doubles all of last season -- Josh Alexander had two, and Matt Kingsley recorded one. The Lumberjacks have already surpassed that mark this year with five double-doubles -- each of the first four coming from a different player. Kingsley posted the first with 22 points and 13 rebounds against Jackson State. Nick Shaw then scored 17 points and pulled down 16 rebounds against Louisiana-Monroe, and Eric Bell had 18 points with 11 assists at Northern Illinois three days later. Alexander finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds at Jackson State, then recorded his seventh career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds at Nicholls State. • DIAL "1" FOR ASSISTANCE: Sophomore point guard Eric Bell (jersey number 1) leads the Southland Conference in assists and ranks 17th in the nation with 6.14 assists per game. He posted a career-high 11 assists at Northern Illinois. That marked the first double-digit assist effort for a Lumberjack since Marcus Clark dished out 10 in a game during the 2005-06 season. Bell also leads the Southland and ranks 52nd in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.22. • ALEXANDER THE GREAT: Junior forward Josh Alexander is enjoying a record year in 2007-08. The Shreveport, La., native has scored 15 or more points on 15 different occasions this season, including four performances with more than 20 points, and has three double-digit rebound efforts. His 16.6 points per game average has him on pace to crack the top 15 on SFA's list of career scoring leaders, and he recently became the all-time leader in career 3-point field goals. Alexander has hit 64 3-pointers this season -- well on his way to a career-high -- and has 209 for his career. He broke into the 1,000-point scorer list with his 14th point in SFA's loss at Nicholls State, when he scored a game-high 18 points. • ON A ROLL ON THE ROAD: SFA's 10-game winning streak earlier this season included five straight victories in non-conference road games and a neutral-site win. This marks the first time in program history for the Lumberjacks to win five straight road games against Division I, non-conference opponents. It's the first time since the 1981-82 season for SFA to win more than three straight out-of-conference road games against any level of competition. Overall, the Lumberjacks are 8-3 in games outside of William R. Johnson Coliseum this season. • PERFECT IN THE WRJ: The Lumberjacks are out to a 10-0 start in home games at the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The last time a Lumberjack team won more than three in a row at home to start a season was in 2003-04, when SFA went 16-0 at home as part of a 31-game home winning streak that dated to the previous season and was the longest active streak in the nation by the time it was finally broken. • SAFE AT HOME: In seven-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled an 84-25 (.771) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum, including a 10-0 home mark this season. SFA is 280-116 (.707) all-time in the Coliseum. The 'Jacks went 10-5 (.667) at home in 2006-07. SFA defeated UT-Tyler, 63-47, in the 2007-08 season opener. Kaspar's teams are a perfect 8-0 in home openers at SFA. • EARLY SIGNINGS: SFA signed three recruits during the fall's early signing period. The Lumberjacks added shooting guard Walt Harris, small forward Zach Williams and power forward Lu Griffin. Harris and Griffin are top-flight junior college players -- Harris from McLennan J.C. and Griffin from South Plains J.C. -- while Williams, a Dallas Skyline product, is a Top 15 prep recruit for his class in the state of Texas. The trio has been ranked tops in the Southland Conference among early signing classes by The Hoop Scoop, with a league-best average player rating of 3.0. Rivals.com rates Harris and Williams as the best shooting guard and small forward, respectively, signed in the Southland Conference in the fall. Scouting the Roadrunners • FOR THE RECORD: Texas-San Antonio opened the season by winning four of its first five games, including three straight, but the Roadrunners have since won back-to-back games only once (they defeated Central Arkansas and Northwestern State in consecutive home games). UTSA is currently battling a season-long four-game losing streak that began after the Roadrunners collected those back-to-back wins. The team is coming off a 70-54 home loss to Sam Houston State on Wednesday night. The Roadrunners have not won a single road game this season, going 0-9 in away contests. Their lone victory away from the Convocation Center was a 77-67 neutral-site verdict against Navy in San Antonio's Alamodome. • LAST GAME: The Roadrunners barely eclipsed 35 percent shooting from the floor Wednesday as they suffered a 70-54 home loss to Sam Houston State. While Texas-San Antonio forced 24 Bearkat turnovers, Sam Houston overcame the miscues with a strong inside game. The Bearkats outscored UTSA, 52-20, in the paint and shot 59.3 percent for the game. Sam Houston beat the Roadrunners up on the boards, claiming a 42-18 advantage in rebounding and outscoring UTSA, 18-6, in second-chance points. Freshman guard Devin Gibson scored 12 points and dished out six assists to lead the Roadrunners. Shamir McDaniel scored 13 points to pace Sam Houston, and Ryan Bright grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. • KEY NUMBERS: The Roadrunners force the issue defensively. They rate second in the Southland Conference with 9.55 steals per game and are also second in the league in turnover margin at plus-4.16. However, the aggressive play hasn't translated to a big reward in scoring defense, where Texas-San Antonio is ranked seventh, allowing 67.7 points per game. The Roadrunners are in the top half of the SLC rankings for 3-point field goal percentage, hitting .342 -- good enough for fifth in the league -- but they allow opponents to connect on 37.3 percent from downtown, which ranks next to last in the SLC. UTSA is fourth in the conference in 3-pointers made with 7.10 treys per contest. • LEADERS: Freshman guard Devin Gibson has shouldered the scoring load for Texas-San Antonio. His 12.3 points per game rank 18th in the Southland Conference, and he is second only to SFA's Eric Bell in assists, averaging 5.67 per contest. Gibson also leads the league in steals with 2.10 thefts per game. Junior guard Joey Shank averages 10.7 points per outing, which stands 25th in the league, and his 2.85 3-pointers per game are second. Senior center Keith Spencer's 6.3 rebounds per game are 12th-best in the league, and he ranks fourth in the SLC in field goal percentage, hitting 60.2 percent from the floor. • For the complete release, click on the "UTSA Game Notes" link in the side bar of the Men's Basketball home page. -- SFA --
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