CANYON – The ACU Wildcats hit just three field goals and scored 12 first-half points Wednesday night and they were never able to recover as they suffered a 71-54 loss to West Texas A&M in a Lone Star Conference South Division men's basketball game at the First United Bank Center.
The Wildcats' third straight loss drops them to 8-7 overall and 0-3 in the LSC South Division, while the win for the Buffs snaps a two-game losing streak as they improve to 14-2 and 1-2. ACU will return to LSC South play Saturday at 4 p.m. when it hosts Texas A&M-Kingsville at Moody Coliseum.
ACU hit just 3 of 17 shots from the field in the first half (17.6 percent), including just 1 of 3 from the 3-point arc, and trailed 30-12 at halftime.
The Wildcats, though, were actually still in the game with 4:53 left in the half when
Alex Richman hit a 3-pointer to cut the WT lead to 19-12. But the Buffs would close the first half on an 11-0 run and then score the first four points of the second half to push the lead to 34-12 with 19:01 left in the game.
The Wildcats outscored the Buffs 12-2 over the next four minutes, capped by two free throws by
Preston Davis with 15:14 left in the game, cutting the Buffs' lead to 36-24. But that was as close as the Wildcats would get as WT pulled away for the win.
Davis led the Wildcats with 13 points, while
Zach Williams came off the bench to score 11 for ACU. The Wildcats shot just 30.2 percent (13 of 43) from the field, including just 3 of 12 from beyond the arc.
