Lumberjacks Fall to Cardinals

NACOGDOCHES, Texas- The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (9-13, 2-9) fell 67-62 at home to the visiting Lamar University Cardinals (13-9, 8-3) on Saturday afternoon. 

The Cardinals opened the scoring on an early three-pointer but the Lumberjacks got on the scoreboard shortly after with a pair of jumpers from Matt Hayman and Keon Thompson to take an early 4-3 lead. Juhawnei Stone and Keon Thompson would tack on four more points for SFA, and they held a slim 8-7 lead five minutes into the first half. 

At the halfway point of the first half, Keon Thompson would start to heat up with consecutive baskets for SFA to cut the Cardinals lead down to 21-17 with 10 minutes remaining in the opening half. The Cardinals would end the half on a spurt of momentum as they would extend their lead to 41-24 at the half. 

Matt Hayman would knock down a free-throw early in the second half to open up scoring for the half. The first five minutes of the second half offered a much more intense back-and-forth defense affair as a Nana Antwi-Boasiako dunk cut the Cardinals lead to 45-29 with five minutes gone in the second half. 

The Lumberjacks second half rally got underway with an 8-2 scoring run with 12 minutes left in the half fueled by points from Chrishawn ChristmasDominic Pangonis, and Keon Thompson. It brought the Lumberjacks to within 10 of the Cardinals at 47-37 at the midway point of the second half. 

SFA kept their foot on the gas with a 7-3 scoring run fueled by five points from Dominic Pangonis. It brought SFA to within eight of the Cardinals at 52-44 with eight minutes remaining. The momentum would stay on the Lumberjacks side as Matt Hayman and Keith Lamar would hit consecutive triples for SFA to close the Lamar lead down to five at 55-50. After four points from Keon Thompson and Matt Hayman, the Lumberjacks turned a 55-44 deficit into a one-point game at 55-54 with five minutes left in the game. 

The Lumberjacks would continue to play the Cardinals close over the final five minutes as they stayed within five points of Lamar the rest of the game, however, the Cardinals would knock down their free-throws down the stretch as they held off a furious SFA second-half rally to claim a 67-62 win. 

Top Players of the Game:

  • Keon Thompson: 18 points (led team), four assists (led team), four rebounds, three steals (led team)
  • Matt Hayman: 13 points, five rebounds, one assist, one steal
  • Nana Antwi-Boasiako: Eight points, seven rebounds (led team), one assist, two steals

The Lumberjacks hit the road for an early week matchup in New Orleans against the New Orleans University Privateers on Monday, February 3rd. Tip-off for Monday’s conference clash is set for 6:30 p.m. in New Orleans. 

TICKET INFORMATION
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By: Peter Trainor, Student Assistant for Strategic Communications

https://sfajacks.com/news/2025/2/1/mens-basketball-lumberjacks-fall-to-cardinals