ABILENE – Junior guard
Antonio Bell scored eight of his game-high 21 points in a key ACU run midway through the second half Tuesday night to lead the Wildcats to an 80-69 win over Texas-Permian Basin in non-conference men's basketball action at Moody Coliseum.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 4-1 on the season, while the Falcons fall to 2-4. Two of ACU's four wins have come against the Falcons, but all four wins are against NCAA Division II in-region opponents.
ACU is off until next Tuesday when the Wildcats take on Dallas Baptist in Dallas at 7 p.m.
The Wildcats led by 13 points at halftime (45-32), but saw that lead dwindle to 54-50 over the opening 6:49 of the second half. Elijah Jordan's 3-pointer followed by a free throw by Ke'Andre Derrick ended the run and cut the Wildcat lead to just four points.
But
Zach Williams poured in a jumper with 12:58 left in the game, pushing ACU's lead to 56-50 and igniting a 10-0 run. Bell scored the final eight points in the run on a layup with 11:09 left in the game, and then back-to-back 3-pointers to push ACU's led to 64-50 with 10:29 left in the game.
The Falcons responded with an 11-0 run of their own to cut the ACU lead to 64-61 with 5:46 to play before
Zach Williams and
Eric Kibi took over down the stretch for ACU.
Kibi scored six points, grabbed four rebounds and had one block, while Williams had five points in the final 5:28 of the contest as ACU pulled away to the win.
Bell had 21 points, four assists and two steals off the bench, while Williams had 18 points, two rebounds, two assists and five steals.
Kendall Durant finished with 12 points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal, while Kibi had 13 points, nine rebounds and one block.
