ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats bounced back Tuesday night from a disappointing loss last Saturday to whip rival Angelo State, 79-64, in a Lone Star Conference men's basketball game at Moody Coliseum.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 8-9 overall and 2-7 in the LSC, while the Rams fall to 7-11 and 1-8. The two teams will meet again Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in San Angelo where the Wildcats will be looking for a third conference win for the first time since going 4-8 in 2008-09.
Tuesday night's win, in fact, gives ACU more than one conference win in a season for the first time since the 2008-09 season. A win Saturday in San Angelo would give the Wildcats a big push toward their first appearance in the LSC Post-Season Tournament since the 2007-08 season
After Angelo made the first bucket of the game – a 3-pointer by Keenen Coleman – ACU answered with seven straight points to take a 7-3 lead, and the Wildcats never again trailed. The win helped erase the bitter taste of Saturday's 62-53 loss to Tarleton State that turned on four late technical foul calls against the Wildcats.
Tuesday night's game got out of hand for Angelo State when LaDonn Huckaby was whistled for a foul on ACU's
Armani Williams, and then earned two technical fouls and an ejection for arguing the call with the officials. Williams then hit six straight free throws to push the Wildcats' lead to 28-9 with 10:11 left in the first half. ACU would push its lead to as many as 22 points in the first half before settling for a 43-32 lead at the break.
Angelo State would trim ACU's lead to as few as 12 points early in the second half, but the Wildcats would respond with an 8-0 run to push it back to 20 points at 55-35 with 15:33 to play.
Kendall Durant had a three-point play, followed by a 3-pointer from
Marc Little and a jumper from
Eric Kibi.
ACU grabbed as much as a 24-point lead twice late in the second half before coasting home with the 15-point victory.
Armani Williams led the Wildcats with 22 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field and 10 of 10 shooting from the free throw line, tying the school record for free throw percentage in a game.
Zach Williams had 11 points and six rebounds, while
Eric Milam played perhaps his best game as a Wildcat with 14 points and nine rebounds in just 11 minutes of action.
