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ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats are back at home this weekend as they continue a four-game homestand with a pair of games, including a national broadcast on Saturday on ESPN3.
The Wildcats (7-11 overall and 1-3 in Southland Conference play) will host Lamar tonight at 7:30 p.m., followed by Saturday's game against Sam Houston State at 3 p.m. Tonight's game is Chapel Credit Night for ACU students, who will receive two Chapel credits for their attendance at the doubleheader. And Saturday's game will be the first national broadcast of an ACU basketball game from Moody Coliseum. David Saltzman and former Baylor coach Jim Harrell will be on the call for both the ACU women's and men's games. Both of ACU's games this weekend can be heard locally on 98.1 FM The Ticket.
The Wildcats picked up their first Southland Conference win since 1973 and first win over an NCAA Division I opponent since 1984 last Saturday when
Parker Wentz's "Hail Mary" dash and layup at the buzzer beat Central Arkansas, 73-72. The layup actually never made it through the bucket, but the Bears were called for goaltending and the basket counted to give the Wildcats the victory.
Wentz scored a career-high 21 points in the win over Central Arkansas in 40 minutes of playing time. Wentz, the sophomore guard from Lubbock, has played 118 of a possible 130 minutes in the Wildcats' last three games as he's taken up the slack for the Wildcats' two leading scorers (
LaDarrien Williams and
Harrison Hawkins), who have missed each of the last two games.
Wentz is the Wildcats' third-leading scorer at 10.6 points per game, followed by
Jacob Lancaster and
Julian Edmonson at 7.3 ppg. Edmonson scored 26 and 15 points last week against Oral Roberts and Central Arkansas, respectively, in his first two starts of the season.
Also last Saturday, freshman forward
Michael Grant, scored a career-high 17 points in 27 minutes and is averaging 3.7 ppg. Sophomore forward
Austin Cooke is averaging 6.9 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds per game.
The Cardinals of Lamar are 1-17 overall and 0-6 in the Southland Conference. Head coach Pat Knight -- son of legendary Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight -- led the Cardinals to a 23-12 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2011-012, but they are 4-45 over the last two seasons (3-28 last year) and have lost 14 straight games entering tonight's game.
Lamar's only win of the season was a 75-66 win over Savannah State in the Global Sports Showcase in Salt Lake City on Nov. 21.
The Cardinals are led offensively by junior guard Nimrod Hilliard (15.1 ppg), who has scored in double figures in all but one of Lamar's games this season. But Hilliard's numbers have dropped a bit since his career-high 29 at Northwestern State on Jan. 4. Since that time, Hilliard has averaged less than 11 per game. Sophomore Rhon Mitchell and senior Amos Wilson have picked up their scoring over the course of the same stretch. Mitchell leads the team during that time averaging 12.5 points per game, while Wilson has added 11 per contest.
Sam Houston State will play at Incarnate Word tonight in a matchup of two the league's top scoring offenses. The Bearkats are 13-5 overall and tied for second in the Southland Conference at 5-1.
The Bearkats, who ended last year's campaign with a 63.8 team scoring average, are putting 79.6 points per game on the board in 2014.
But the SHSU men sport a more balanced attack. Four Bearkats are averaging in double figures in Southland Conference action with Jabari Peters (14.2 points per game), Paul Baxter (12.8), Kaheem Ransom (12.8) and Michael Holyfield (10.7).
Holyfield is the team's top rebounder with a 7.5 average in the Kats' six Southland games this year. Ransom received Southland Conference men's basketball "Player of the Week" honors after averaging 21 points per game in SHSU's victories at Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans.
