ABILENE — ACU junior guard
Parker Wentz scored a game-high 18 points Saturday afternoon as the Wildcats evened their season record with a 76-48 non-conference win over Northern New Mexico at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats are now 4-4 on the season with an upcoming road trip that will see them play at Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday, at Boise State next Saturday and in Las Vegas the week of Christmas, all part of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic. The Eagles, meanwhile, fall to 5-8 on the season as they shot just 23.4 percent from the floor (11 of 47).
Saturday's contest was never in doubt after ACU ripped off seven straight early points to take a 7-3 lead.
Austin Cooke scored five of his seven points in that game-opening run. ACU never trailed again and was never pushed by the Eagles, who were held to their season-lows in both field goals and points.
ACU's defensive effort forced 23 turnovers and picked up 10 steals in the team's 28-point victory. Wentz was the only Wildcat to reach double figures in scoring, although
LaDarrien Williams and
Duran Porter each had nine supporting points for ACU.
The Wildcats shot just 39.3 percent fem the field (24 of 61), but hit 7 of 18 shots from 3-point range (38.9 percent) and 27 of 27 from the free throw line (77.8 percent).
