Box score
WACO – First-year ACU men's basketball coach
Joe Golding knew that his undermanned and outsized would need a miraculous effort Tuesday night to beat 12th-ranked Baylor at the Ferrell Center.
Instead, what he was looking for was effort and intensity in his first real look at his team in game-like situations.
And despite the Wildcats' 81-54 loss to the Bears, Golding was mostly pleased with what he saw from his team.
"I was excited," Golding said. "I thought our guys competed, and the tell-tale sign was that we out-rebounded maybe the tallest team in NCAA Division I basketball. Do we have room for improvement? Absolutely. But we competed and played hard."
Baylor features a starting front line of 6-11 Perry Jones III, 6-7 Quincy Acy and 6-9 Quincy Miller, but the Wildcats – severely undersized by comparison – out-rebounded the Bears, 41-37, including 26-16 in the first half. Jones – a pre-season all-America selection – led the Bears with 14 points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes.
ACU, coming off a 9-17 season last year and picked to finish last this season in the Lone Star Conference, kept the game close in the first half, going to the locker room down just 35-29 at halftime. ACU only led once (5-2 on a
Marc Little 3-pointer with 16:41 left in the half), and was able to rally from a 14-point deficit late in the half.
Kendall Durant buried a 3-pointer and then
Antonio Bell hit a layup to cut the Baylor lead to 27-18 with 4:31 to play. After
Zach Williams hit a free throw, Bell hit a 3-pointer at the 3:06 mark to make it a 27-22 game. ACU got the lead down to three points at 30-27 with 1:40 to play on a Durant jumper before Baylor closed the half on a 5-2 run.
But the second half belonged to the longer, taller and more athletic Bears, who outscored ACU 17-4 in the first 7:10 of the second half to push the lead to 52-33 with 12:50 to play on a 3-pointer by Pierre Jackson.
Baylor took its first 20-point lead at 58-37 on a jumper by Deuce Bello with 10:54 left in the game, and the Wildcats would never get closer than that 21-point deficit.
Bell led the Wildcats with 13 points on 4 of 9 shooting, while Durant had 11 points on 5 of 13 shooting. Senior transfer
Eric Kibi - at 6-6 playing against Baylor's huge front line all night – finished with four points and seven rebounds.
"Kibi had a stress fracture in his right foot and missed two months, but he's starting to get his bounce back," Golding said. "He'll be an important player for us, and he showed why tonight."
The Wildcats will begin the regular season on Friday, Nov. 11, when they host Truman State at 8 p.m. at Moody Coliseum in the second game of the ACU Whitten Inn Tipoff Classic.
"We'll take (Wednesday) off, watch the film and then get back to practice on Thursday," Golding said. "We've got a lot to work on, but we'll take a lot of positives out of this game and get ready for Truman State. Hopefully we'll have a big crowd out to watch these guys. These guys deserve a chance, so hopefully our fans will give them that and show up and be a big part of what we're trying to get done with this program."
