Feb. 22, 2006

HUNTSVILLE - Fresh off its first Southland Conference victory of the season, Texas State travels to Sam Houston State Thursday to begin a two-game, East Texas road swing.

Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. in Johnson Coliseum and the game will be broadcast both by KTSW-FM 89.9 as well as on the internet at txstatebobcats.com.

Sam Houston State dropped a 76-64 decision at McNeese State last week and now shares second place in the Southland Conference standings with McNeese State. The Bearkats close out the regular season with four straight games against Texas rivals with three of the four being played at home.

Heading into the week, senior guard Chris Jordan is averaging 14.1 points to lead the Bearkats. Sophomore Ryan Bright is averaging 11.1 points along with 7.8 rebounds for the Kats.

Jordan scored 20 points earlier this season to lead Sam Houston State to an 80-70 win over the Bobcats in San Marcos. Texas State's Charles Dotson scored 23 points in the game, marking the first of three straight 20-point games for the junior college transfer.

Junior guard Jejuan Plair leads the Southland Conference in assists, averaging 5.63 per game and the Bearkats lead the league as a team in the category, averaging 17.92 per game.

Texas State's next two opponents rank atop the SLC statistical rankings in scoring margin. SFA is outscoring opponents by a +7.0 margin while Sam Houston State is outscoring opponents by +6.2 points an outing.

In its 85-68 win over I-35 rival Texas-San Antonio last week, senior Lance Burroughs scored a career-high 25 points. Burroughs was 9-of-13 from the field, knocking down 6-of-8 three-point attempts. He also had four rebounds and a steal in 36 minutes of turnover-free basketball.

Junior transfer Charles Dotson scored 15 points in the game and continues to lead the Bobcats in scoring, averaging 12 points an outing.

As indicative of his numbers in league games, Dotson has been solid since the start of Southland Conference play. In SLC games only, he ranks among the top ten in the league in scoring (14.8 ppg/8th), rebounding (6.6 rpg/10th), field goal percentage (.555/6th) and blocks (1.08 bpg/6th). He is also shooting 72 percent from the free throw line in Southland contests.

Senior guard Chris Langhorne has scored in double figures in each of the past three games starting with a career-high 20 points against McNeese State. He also scored 14 points in each of last week's games. For the year, Langhorne is averaging 7.5 points and ranks second on the team, averaging 2.68 assists an outing.