BEAUMONT -- Walt Harris brings Stephen F. Austin's Lumberjacks into the Montagne Center and Lamar figures to find No. 4 in the purple jersey and stick with him like a stamp on a letter.
SFA (16-5, 6-2) and veteran coach Danny Kaspar arrive here with the Southland Conference's East Division lead but Lamar (12-11, 4-4) can rudely greet them if coach Steve Roccaforte's squad should find SFA reproducing a performance of three days earlier.
While the Cardinals jogged past Central Arkansas, 73-65, on Wednesday night, SFA found itself up to its neck in Colonels even in Johnson Coliseum.
The Lumberjacks and Cardinals play in the Montagne Center (7:05) for the first time in three years with Kaspar wondering if SFA will snap out of the doldrums from its 68-67 overtime victory Nicholls.
Harris -- hardly built the physique of a Lumberjack at 6-5, 185 -- really kept SFA from blowing a home-court win on Wednesday.
The senior from Killeen knocked home a game-winning three with 8.3 seconds left in overtime. It enabled to Nicholls to adjourn a 68-67 loser rather than a 67-65 winner.
"Walt hit that big shot and I was happy we got a win but I was very disappointed with how we played," said Kaspar, who is heading toward 400-career head coaching victories in fine career (393-161).
"We were lucky to win."
Nicholls looked to have shot, down 52-42, with less than seven minutes to play. The Colonels even trailed 58-52 with less a minute to go. It had to gripe Kaspar up a purple wall that the favored Lumberjacks found themselves in overtime anyway.
That's when Harris took SFA on his shoulders like a true lumberjack, and hit a couple of jump shots from the lane, giving SFA an early cushion.
Lamar also can instruct a course on failing to protect a lead. The Cardinals freely admitted their failures in that department after LU's 73-65 survival of pesky Central Arkansas.
"We got the lead and did not do a good job protecting it, you know. I'm not going to say we got lazy on defense but I think we probably lost some of our focus, maybe got too comfortable with the lead we had."
The nicest word which could part from Roccaforte's lips after Wednesday was 'bench'. The LU men won the bench points a whopping 17-4 but Steve's team could have lost this home outing with much more shaky ballhandling.
LU enters its 24th game at a minus 2.8 in its giveaway-takeaway department. The job falls on all of Roc's guys, not just the guards, to do the ultimate job of protecting the basketball.
SFA is a plus 1.8 in its turnover ratio through 21 games.
• When: Saturday, 7:05 p.m.
• Where: Montagne Center (10,080), Beaumont
• Records: SFA State 6-2, 16-5; LU 4-4, 12-12
• Series: Tied 23-23
• Last meeting: SFA State 74-62 on Feb. 7 in Nacogdoches
• Radio: KVLI (560-AM)
• Probable starters: SFA State: Eddie Williams 6-2, Jr. (13.7 ppg, 5.7); Jordan Glynn 6-7, Jr. (9.2 ppg, 8.9 rpg); Jereal Scott 6-7, Soph. (12.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg); Eric Bell 5-3, Sr. (2.8 ppg, 3.7 apg); Walt Harris 6-5, Sr. (11.8 ppg, 1.8 apg); LU: Anthony Miles 6-2, Soph. (14.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.6 apg); Coy Custer 6-11, Jr. (5.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg); Justin Nabors 6-6, Sr. (13.8 ppg, 9.9 rpg); Charlie Harper 6-6, Soph (9.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg); Kendrick Harris 6-1, Jr. (12.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg).
• SFA Fast Fact: Lumberjacks outrebounded Nicholls, 31-19, and shot 52.3 percent from the field yet barely survived at home in OT on Wednesday with a 68-67 victory over the Colonels.
• LU Fast Fact: Lamar is 18-7 in February (.720) under Steve Roccaforte with a .500 record or better each of his three seasons.
