Feb. 1, 2008

NACOGDOCHES, Texas -

SFA at Texas-Arlington
February 2, 2008 • 4:00 p.m.
Texas Hall (3,600) • Arlington, Texas
Radio: KTBQ (107.7 FM) • Television: None • Web: Yahoo! Sports

Game Information

Center Stage: The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team will hit the stage at Texas Hall Saturday afternoon for a pivotal Southland Conference West Division showdown with Texas-Arlington. The contest is set for a 4 p.m. start. SFA enters the game with a 16-3 overall mark and a 4-2 record in league play, which has the Lumberjacks in a tie for the SLC West lead. The Mavericks are just behind at 4-3 in conference action with a 14-5 season record.

Last Game: SFA bounced back from its loss at Sam Houston State with a sound defensive effort Wednesday night against the Southland Conference's top offensive team. The Lumberjacks knocked off Texas State, 81-63, holding the high-scoring Bobcats to their lowest offensive output of the season. Four SFA players reached double digits in the scoring column, led by 18 from junior forward Josh Alexander, who also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. The Lumberjacks shot 46.8 percent for the game while holding Texas State to a 33.9-percent effort. SFA set new season-highs for free throws made and free throws attempted, knocking down 31 of its 45 foul shots. The Lumberjacks forced Texas State into 14 turnovers and recorded seven blocked shots -- three each by junior centers Matt Kingsley and Benson Akpan.

vs. Texas-Arlington: SFA leads the all-time series with the Mavericks, 26-25. The series is split down the middle in the last 10 meetings, and Texas-Arlington has won three of the last five. Home-court has played a huge role in the series' recent history. Under head coach Danny Kaspar, SFA is 6-8 overall against the Mavericks but only 1-6 on the road. The lone win at Texas Hall came in the semifinals of the 2003-04 Southland Conference Tournament. The last time SFA won a regular-season game on the stage in Arlington was during the 1996-97 season, when the Lumberjacks nabbed a 65-64 verdict. The teams split last year's games with each squad winning on its home floor.

The Mavericks: Texas-Arlington's consistently strong inside game and quirky home-court advantage has yielded a perfect 11-0 mark at home. The Mavericks average about five points per game more at home than their season average, but it's their defense that really gets ratcheted up when playing on the stage. UTA allows just 59.6 points per game at home and has held seven home opponents to 60 points or fewer.

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 124-93 (.571) at SFA and has a 343-145 (.703) overall record in his 17th season as a collegiate head coach. Texas-Arlington is coached by Scott Cross. Cross is 27-22 (.551) in his second season as the Mavericks' head coach.

Up Next: SFA will continue SLC West Division play next week when the Lumberjacks travel to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, then return home to host Texas-San Antonio. The game against the Islanders is set for a 7 p.m. tip on Wednesday. SFA will take on the Roadrunners Saturday in a 6 p.m. game.

News and Notes

• 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 fell to No. 20 in Monday's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. Last week's poll found SFA at No. 17. This is SFA's eighth straight week in the rankings 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 three weeks 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 17.5 points per game in SFA's 15 wins, along with Kingsley's 16.3 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 54.4 points per game, which leads the Southland Conference. SFA entered the week tied for tops in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 53.9 points per contest. 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 12 opponents to fewer than 60 points and have only allowed one team to break 70. SFA ranks 18th in the country in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 38.1 percent shooting from the field.

• STINGY ON THE GLASS: The Lumberjacks give up the second-fewest rebounds per game in the Southland Conference. SFA is currently allowing its opponents just 31.2 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 20th in the nation with 6.21 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 68th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.10.

• ALEXANDER THE GREAT: Junior forward Josh Alexander has hit a hot streak that has the Shreveport, La., native on pace for a record year in 2007-08. Alexander is 31-for-69 (.449) on field goals, including a 20-of-47 (.426) showing from 3-point range in the Lumberjacks' last six games. He has scored 18 or more points five times in that span, including a season-high 26 against Lamar and 22 points at Sam Houston State. Alexander broke the 1,000-point barrier with his 14th point in SFA's loss at Nicholls State, when he scored a game-high 18 points. He currently ranks 19th in career scoring at SFA, and, if he continues his current scoring pace, he could rank as high as 11th on the school's all-time scoring list by the end of the season. Alexander is also just two 3-point field goals away from setting a school record for career 3-point baskets.

• 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 7-2 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 Mavericks

• FOR THE RECORD: Texas-Arlington is enjoying one of the best seasons in school history, largely on the strength of a solid non-conference performance. The Mavericks are 14-5 overall and 4-3 in Southland Conference play. UTA opened the year with a school-record eight-game win streak that included victories over North Texas and at Wichita State. The Mavericks' first loss of the year came in overtime at Texas Christian and was followed by a road defeat at Oklahoma State. Those losses were followed by a pair of victories in UTA's last two non-conference games before the Mavericks dropped road decisions to Northwestern State and Central Arkansas to open SLC play. UTA rebounded with four straight victories before falling, 73-57, at Sam Houston State Wednesday. The Mavericks are a perfect 11-0 at home in Texas Hall this season.

• LAST GAME: Texas-Arlington was abandoned by its most reliable weapon in dropping a 73-57 decision at Sam Houston State Wednesday. The Mavericks, who entered this week ranked No. 15 in the country in field goal percentage, could hit only 32 percent against the Bearkats. As a result, UTA put up its second-lowest point total of the season. The Mavericks were playing without senior forward Larry Posey. Posey had started every game of the season until Wednesday but missed the game with an undisclosed illness. Leading scorer Anthony Vereen scored a game-high 22 points, but no other Maverick reached double figures, and UTA went 2-for-15 from 3-point range.

• KEY NUMBERS: The Mavericks shoot a Southland Conference-best 48.1 percent from the field and are nearly as good at the other end of the floor. Texas-Arlington has held its opponents to 37.3 percent from the floor, good enough for second in the SLC. The Mavericks are also one of only two conference teams to hold opponents below 30 percent on 3-point field goals. They've allowed just 29.1 percent of shots from beyond the arc to fall. UTA doesn't get many opportunities for second-chance points, as it ranks last in the league in offensive rebounding at 9.53 boards per game. But the Mavericks are the second-best team in the conference on the defensive glass, pulling down 29.11 rebounds per contest.

• LEADERS: Texas-Arlington is paced by a strong inside game. Junior forward Anthony Vereen leads the Mavericks and ranks 10th in the conference in scoring with 13.3 points per game. Senior center Jermaine Griffin is second on the squad in scoring with 12.4 points per outing and ranks second in the SLC in rebounding, averaging 8.3 boards per game. Griffin's .640 accuracy from the field is second-best in the league, and sophomore guard Rog'er Guignard provides some outside scoring, ranking third in the conference in 3-pointers made at 2.68 per game.

• For the complete release, click on the "Texas-Arlington Game Notes" link in the side bar of the Men's Basketball home page.

-- SFA --