ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats had the nation's sixth-ranked team on the ropes and in line for just its second loss of the season Saturday night before their upset bid fell apart under a flurry of late technical fouls at Moody Coliseum.
ACU – which led by as many as many as eight points in the second half – led 51-50 with 1:28 to play, but saw head coach
Joe Golding whistled for two technical fouls and ejected and
Marc Little called for a technical foul, and the Tarleton State Texans escaped with a 62-53 Lone Star Conference win over the Wildcats.
The win pushes the Texans to 15-1 overall and 7-0 in the LSC, while the loss drops the Wildcats to 7-9 and 1-7. ACU returns to action Tuesday night when it hosts Angelo State at 7:30 p.m., and then plays at Angelo State next Saturday.
The Wildcats' downfall actually began with 3:48 to play when
Zach Williams drove a suddenly wide open lane only to miss a dunk. He was whistled for a technical foul for hanging onto the rim. Chris Harrell hit 1 of 2 free throws to cut ACU's lead to 49-46.
ACU's
Marc Little then turned the ball over and Shedrick Haynes hit a jumper with 2:20 left to cut the Wildcats' lead to 49-48.
Dosh Simms then missed a layup for ACU when Fabian Wilson blocked his layup and Haynes grabbed the rebound with the Texans down a point.
Wilson's layup with 1:32 gave the Texans a 50-49 lead, but it was a short-lived advantage. Wilson was whistled for a foul on
Antonio Bell, who hit two free throws to give the Wildcats a 51-50 lead.
Tarleton State's Brian Word then gave Tarleton State the lead for good when he grabbed a rebound of his own miss and stuck it back to give the Texans a 52-51 lead with 1:16 left. That play lit Golding's fuse as he complained to the officials that Word went over
Eric Kibi's back to get the rebound.
On the offensive end of the floor,
Kendall Durant turned the ball over, and on the inbounds pass, Little was whistled for a technical foul when he slapped at the ball while it was in Harrell's hands. Harrell then hit 3 of 4 free throws with 27 seconds (technical foul and personal foul) to play to give the Texans a 55-51 lead.
When the Wildcats brought the ball up the floor, Bell and Wilson collided at the top of the key with no foul called, and that set Golding off. He was whistled for two technical fouls and ejected, giving Tarleton State four free throws.
Harrell made four straight free throws to give the Texans a 59-51 lead with 22 seconds to play and that was the ballgame.
The late technical fouls put a damper on what was a taught, testy battle for the first 37 minutes of the contest. Tarleton State entered the game as the nation's top defensive team and it showed as the Texans limited ACU to its lowest point output of the season and only 38.6 percent shooting from the field (17 of 44).
The Wildcats were just as good on the defensive end, holding the Texans to just 41.7 percent shooting (20 of 48).
Bell was the only Wildcat in double figures with 14 points, while Haynes led all scorers with 19 points for the Texans.
