Men's Basketball | 12/16/2014 11:10:00 PM
Live Audio (ACU) l Live Video l Live StatsCHICAGO, Ill. – The ACU Wildcats begin a four-game, three-city, seven-day road trip Wednesday night when they take on Loyola University-Chicago at Gentile Arena on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket. After Wednesday night's game in Chicago – which is the first game in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic – the Wildcats will be in Boise, Idaho, on Saturday to take on Boise State. After that, the Wildcats will head to Las Vegas where they will play the final two games of the classic Monday and Tuesday. ACU will take on South Carolina State on Monday and then either Arkansas-Pine Bluff or Southern Utah on Tuesday.
The Wildcats enter Wednesday night's contest at 4-4 on the season after a 76-48 win last Saturday over Northern New Mexico.
Junior guard
Parker Wentz has 150 career 3-pointers in 65 games (2.3 made per game), and those 150 3-pointers are seventh in ACU history. Wentz – who is ACU's all-time leader in 3-point field goal percentage at .432 – has attempted 347 3-pointers, which is good for seventh in ACU history.
Wentz has scored 780 career points, leaving him 20 short of reaching the 800-point plateau. Wentz had 18 points in each of ACU's last two games – Dec. 6 at Houston and Dec. 13 at home against Northern New Mexico – to give him six double-digit scoring games this season and 30 in his career.
ACU leads the Southland Conference in free throw shooting (75.7 percent), but hasn't found its touch as a team from the field. ACU ranks last in the 13-team league in field goal percentage at 41.1 percent (199 of 484 from the field). The Wildcats, however, are fourth in the league in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 42.6 percent shooting from the field.
Thanks to Wentz, ACU continues to be one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the Southland as the Wildcats have hit 35.8 percent of their shots beyond the arc (62 of 173). Wentz ranks seventh in the league in scoring at 16.5 ppg, while Williams is 19th at 11.3 ppg. Junior guard
Jalen Little is fourth in the league in assists per game (4.3) and leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.3 assists to 1.4 turnovers per game.
Loyola is looking to improve on its 15-4 (.789) record in non-conference home games under head coach Porter Moser. The Ramblers returned from a week-long break for exams with a 58-46 win over Jackson State on Saturday night.
The 46 points allowed were Loyola's lowest since it held Northern Illinois to the same total on Nov. 24, 2012. Led by Milton Doyle, the Ramblers return their top five scorers from last season team and welcome a talented group of seven newcomers
