The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

STEPHEN F Austin’s Nathan Bain was featured ESPN Sportscenter’s Top 10 while Sammy Hunter and Valerie Nesbitt had their best games thus far with their respective Ole Miss programmes to highlight the weekend of play for Bahamians at the NCAA Division 1 level.

Bain scored seven points in the Lumberjacks’ 89-80 win over Niagara, but it was two that attracted the worldwide leader in sports.

Bain pump faked a defender beyond the arc, drove the lane and finished with a one-handed tomahawk dunk over a Niagara defender. It was the top play on “SC top 10” - the countdown ranking the top sports plays across America on ESPN’s flagship programme.

Bain and the Lumberjacks are off to a 4-0 start. The senior forward is averaging 4.3 points in just over 11 minutes per game this season. SFA takes their first road trip of the season on Wednesday, November 20 against Big Ten opponent Rutgers.

Last season, Bain and the Lumberjacks finished in a tie for ninth place in the final version of the Southland Conference standings.

In his third full season of availability, Bain averaged 5.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in his junior season, both career highs.

Bain scored a career high 16 points with four rebounds, three steals, two blocked shots and several key plays down the stretch in the Lumberjacks’ 79-77 win on the road over Houston Baptist in the best performance of his career.

As a true freshman, Bain saw time in 24 of SFA’s 34 contests. He posted averages of 2.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 7.5 minutes per game.

As a sophomore, he suffered a back injury that significantly shortened his 2016-17 season.

He took part in only three games for SFA before getting sidelined and receiving a medical redshirt.

Last season, he appeared in 24 of the ‘Jacks’ 35 games and averaged 2.0 points, 0.8 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.5 steals and 0.3 blocked shots in 6.4 minutes per game. Both Hunter and Nesbitt are newcomers to the Ole Miss Rebels men’s and women’s programmes respectively.

Nesbitt finished with 10 points and four steals but the Lady Rebels lost their first game of the season - 69-64 to New Orleans.

The junior transfer opened the season with six points and five assists against Mississippi Valley, followed by six points and four rebounds against the University of Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks.

The Rebels struggled early in the game and created a deficit that was difficult to overcome. Head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said the team had to show more toughness and prioritize ball security.

“I just think right now we’re not the tougher team, and when you’re not tough, you turn the ball over. I wasn’t confident coming into this game because I didn’t feel like we had a lot of good practices. With a team that is young like this, we’re going to have to take losses to learn from it. As a staff, we saw it coming, but this team is stubborn enough that they needed to get a loss. We needed this.” She said, “We have to take our time and we have to be locked in. We have to be ready to step up and do the things you need to do to get a win. It’s college basketball.

The Rebels fell to 2-1 on the year.

“In order for us to have success, we have to go through situations like this and as a coach, I’m going to figure out how to get better for my team, and I expect them to do the same thing,” McPhee-McCuin said.

On the men’s side, Hunter scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds in the Rebels 85-58 win over the Western Michigan Broncos.

Franco Miller finished with two assists.

Ole Miss will end its four-game homestand tonight as Seattle travels more than 2,000 miles to face the Rebels.

Lashann Higgs and the No.22 Texas Longhorns lost 83-58 to the Arizona Wildcats. Higgs finished with 10 points and the Longhorns fell to a surprising 1-2 start to the season.