Sam Houston State Vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor Game Review: One For The Win Column

In a way, the opener for the Sam Houston State Bearkats went just as we had thought and nothing like we had thought.

Things went as planned in that the Bearkats pulled out a 72-47 win, Gilberto Clavell and Josten Crow led the team in points, and they shot 26 three-pointers.

This is where the game starts to deviate from the script, though.

Scoring was incredibly hard to come by early on. It didn't help matters that Gilberto Clavell found himself with two fouls two minutes into the game. He spent most of the rest of the first half on the bench.

As a matter of fact, fouls were a theme of this game. In the first minute of play, Josten Crow was fouled hard by the Crusader's Dean Pele going to the basket. Crow jumped up to get in Pele's face. Thankfully, Lance Pevehouse was there to calm Josten down before things escalated.

From that point on, the officials seemed to be on a mission to not let tempers flair. The result was 23 UMHB fouls in the first half.

The Bearkats were largely unable to capitalize on the whistles, though, as they were only able to hit 22 of their 44 free throw attempts. Long time Bearkat basketball fans will know that this is nothing new.

With the players burning a trail to the free throw line, the game had no real pace to it. The Bearkats looked like they badly wanted to push the tempo and run, but they just couldn't get it done.

With nothing in the way of fast break points, the Bearkats were relegated to taking tons of contested jumpers. As such, the Bearkats shot 37.9 percent from the field. The shooting performance was particularly dismal from the point guard duo of Drae Murray and Marcus Williams. Combined, they made just two of their 14 field goal attempts.

The shooting from the three point line was even worse. The Bearkats shot at a 23.1 percent clip.

Even with just one game in the books, it appears that the point guard position is taking shape. While Drae Murray got the start and played 23 minutes, Marcus Williams came off the bench and played 26 minutes.

Williams is incredibly fast in both game speed and foot speed. I also liked his aggression in looking for his own shot. When the shots aren't falling, you need someone who will attack the basket, and Williams did. It appears that he will be looked to as the backup point, not Byron Randle as I had thought.

Being that it was the season opener, I was a bit surprised that Hooten played with a smaller rotation. 10 players saw the floor, but Byron Randle saw only five minutes. Aaron Thompson, Kelly Lawson and Antuan Bootle all saw less than 15 minutes.

As for who picks up the scoring slack with Ashton Mitchell and Corey Allmond no longer around, well, we still don't know. Josten Crow led the way with 21 points, but that was largely a product of put backs and his seven free throws.

Clavell put in 15 points, but his foul trouble kept him from getting into any type of rhythm. He'll have to work on being on the floor more.

Defense was a bright spot. The Bearkats held the Crusaders to 22 percent shooting from the floor and 11 percent shooting from the three point line.

Newcomer Nafis Richardson was a big part of this. He was very active on the defensive end. He'll remind Bearkat fans of Shamir McDaniel, right down to wearing the same number. 

It wasn't very pretty to watch, but it was a win. All you really wanted to see is a victory and a good effort. There's no doubt that the Bearkats played hard. Effort was never a question. The edginess the game had to it made sure of that.

As we expected, though, there are still a lot of things to work on. The Bearkats turned the ball over 20 times. You aren't going to win many games turning the ball over like that.

The Bearkats have one more chance to work some of the kinks out before the schedule gets tougher. They play Northwestern Oklahoma State on Monday before taking on Texas and Colorado State on the road.