ABILENE – Thanks to its first series sweep of Angelo State since 2007-08, the Wildcats' are out of the Lone Star Conference cellar and have hopes of continuing their climb this week with wins against West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico.
The Wildcats face WT at home Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. and Eastern on the road Saturday at 5 p.m. (CT). Both games will be broadcast locally on 1280-AM KSLI. ACU's home doubleheader vs. the Buffaloes also will be streamed over the Internet via SkyboxLive.com for $2.99.
ACU, West Texas and Eastern begin their week all tied for seventh place at 4-6, but are only 1.0 game out of fourth place and a half game out of sixth. Midwestern State and Incarnate Word – who the Wildcats beat handily earlier this month – are tied for first at 8-2 followed by 6-4 Cameron. Kingsville is 5-5, while Tarleton State and Commerce are deadlocked at 4-5.
The Wildcats played two of their closest games of the season against the Buffaloes and Greyhounds, following a late-November 59-58 victory in Canyon with a 62-60 defeat to Eastern at home. The loss to ENM marked the start of a five-game conference-losing streak for ACU, during which the Wildcats were outscored by a narrow margin of 3.4 points per game.
ACU has since won three of four conference games, which includes a 93-76 win over UIW and the two hard-fought victories over the Rams. The Wildcats needed a late 3-pointer from freshman
T.J. Brown to escape the Junell Center last Wednesday with a 59-56 win, but then crushed the Rams Saturday, 82-63, as six Wildcats reached double figures in scoring.
Senior guard
Eric Lawton was tremendous in both games vs. Angelo State, averaging 19.0 points per game on .583 shooting (14-24). He also made 8-of-13 3-pointers and dished out six assists, one of which led to Brown's go-ahead 3-pointer.
In the rematch at Moody Coliseum, Lawton went 7-9 from the field (4-4 from 3-point range) to finish with 20 points. He has now scored 10 or more points through his last 12 games and has seven games this year with 20 points or more.
Within the conference, Lawton ranks second with 17.3 points per game and fifth in assists (4.3).
Defensively, the Wildcats held the Rams to 59.5 points per game and .367 shooting as
Dosh Simms led ACU's rebounding effort with 11.0 boards per game.
Simms has recorded three consecutive double-doubles and had a season-high 12 rebounds to go along with 13 points during ACU's win at Angelo State. He followed that performance with two steals, 10 boards and 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting at home on Saturday. Simms ranks third in the LSC in rebounding with 7.2 per game and owns its third-best field goal percentage (.609).
West Texas (12-6) is last in scoring offense with 63.4 points per game but first in scoring defense (3rd nationally), allowing 57.3 points per game. The Buffaloes also are one of the league's top rebounding teams with a nationally ranked No. 14 margin of +8.3.
Donald Sims – a 6-foot-5 senior – leads the WT defense with 8.6 rebounds and 1.17 blocks per game. He is the league's No. 7 scorer with 13.7 points per game and ranks first among all D-II players with a .671 field goal percentage (104-155).
Eastern New Mexico is know for its 3-point shooting and begins the week ranked second in the conference with 7.6 3-pointers made per game and .372 3-point field-goal percentage. ACU is just ahead of ENM in this category with a .397 percentage.
Rodney Blackmon (16.6 ppg) and Rafael Love (13,4 ppg) lead the Greyhounds in scoring.
