ABILENE – With every game the rest of the season serving as nothing less than a playoff game, the ACU Wildcats played their biggest season to date Sunday afternoon at Moody Coliseum.
And fortunately for the Wildcats, they were finally able to close out a game in grand fashion as they knocked off Texas A&M-Kingsville, 80-70, to keep alive their hopes for a spot in the Lone Star Conference Post-Season tournament.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 12-14 overall and 4-12 in the LSC, while the Javelinas fall to 12-15 and 7-11. ACU will host Texas A&M-Commerce at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in another must-win game at Moody Coliseum.
In so many of their 14 losses this season, the Wildcats have either been unable to hold a lead or see a rally from a deficit carry all the way through to victory. But Sunday afternoon the Wildcats were able to jump out to a big lead, withstand a Kingsville run and make plays down the stretch to pull out the win and stay alive in the race for the final post-season tournament spot.
The Wildcats led by as many as 13 points early in the second half and by 10 (64-54) With 10:37 to play after Robert Williams buried a jumper for the Javelinas.
The Javelinas continued to cut into the lead, first cutting it to six points, then five points and finally four points at 74-70 on a layup by Reid Wallace at the 5:39 mark.
Neither team scored for more than four minutes before
Antonio Bell hit a pair of free throws to push ACU's lead to 76-70 with 1:22 to play.
Then senior
Zach Williams – who had a key blocked shot just before Bell's two free throws – made a pair game-clinching plays in the final 47 seconds of the game. After a turnover by Ryan Layssard, Williams found a cutting
Dosh Simms for a layup to put ACU up 78-70 with 47 seconds to play.
After Ryan Layssard missed a layup, Williams scooped up the rebound and went coast-to-coast for the game-clinching dunk with 32 seconds to play.
Williams – who had just two first-half points – finished with a team-high 14, while
Marc Little had 1 points and four rebounds. Simms had 11 points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal in 20 minutes off the bench. Bell had 10 points and five assists, while
Kendall Durant had nine points, six assists, one rebound and one steal in 31 minutes.
ACU shot a blistering 64.4 percent from the field in the game (29 of 45), including 5 of 9 from 3-point range.
