Icy conditions push ACU-Corpus men's game to Thursday

UPDATE: Tonight's ACU m en's game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has been postponed because of dangerous road conditions in Abilene and the surrounding area. The game will be played Thursday at 7 p.m. at Moody.

ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats begin their final push for a spot in the Southland Conference Post-Season Tournament this week with the final two home games of the regular season, beginning with Thursday night's tussle against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Wildcats and Islanders are set to tip off at 7 p.m. on P4X Night at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats will be wearing shooting shirts during the game with the P4X logo on the front and fans can support the Play 4 Rex Foundation by ordering those same type of shirts in the Moody concourse during the game.

The P4X Foundation was established in 2013 by ACU associate director of athletics Lance Fleming and his wife, Jill, after the death of their 10-year-old son, Rex, after a 2-year battle against brain cancer. The foundation's purpose is to financially benefit families and children in Abilene and the Big Country who are living with and dealing with pediatric cancer.

After Thursday night's game, the Wildcats will have just one home game left on the schedule: Saturday's Senior Day matinee against Central Arkansas that will also serve as 50th anniversary celebration of the first game ever played in Moody Coliseum, a 96-93 overtime win over Arkansas State on Feb. 27, 1968, that gave the Wildcats the Southland Conference championship.

ACU won't win the Southland Conference regular-season title, but the Wildcats could possibly end the week with a spot already secured in the conference tournament if it can win both games against the Islanders and Bears and get some help in the form of losses from the teams below them in the standings.

The Wildcats enter Thursday night's game at 7-7 in the league and holding the No. 7 spot in the standings, one-half game ahead of eighth-place Central Arkansas, which Wednesday night lost at Stephen F. Austin, 97-62, to fall to 7-8 in league play. McNeese sits in ninth place at 6-9 after a 96-79 home loss to first-place Nicholls Wednesday night.

Corpus Christi enters Thursday night's game at 5-9 in the league, but with an 80-66 win over ACU on Jan. 24 in Corpus Christi. The Islanders are 8-0 all-time against the Wildcats, and Corpus has won six of those games by double digits. In the Islanders' win earlier this season, freshman Tre Gray came off the bench shooting 55 percent from the arc, scoring 20 points on the night.  ACU only shot 35 percent and 26 percent beyond the arc.

Senior guard Joseph Kilgore is one of the top players in the Southland Conference, averaging a team-high 16.9 points while shooting 37.5 percent from 3-point range (33 of 88) and 81 percent from the free throw line. Kareem South, who had a career-high 19 points last week against Lamar, is second on the team in scoring at 11.4 ppg.

The Wildcats – who have lost four of their last six games entering Wednesday night's contest – are led by a quartet of players averaging in double figures: junior Jaren Lewis and sophomore Jalone Friday at 3.4 ppg apiece, graduate transfer Tevin Foster (12.9 ppg) and junior Jaylen Franklin (10.4 ppg).

ACU is in its first year of eligibility for NCAA and Southland Conference tournament action after serving a four-year transition period from NCAA Division II affiliation to NCAA Division I status, so a tournament berth would its first at the Division I level. ACU's next win would also be its 16th of the season, clinching the program's first winning season since the 2007-08 team went 20-9.