HOUSTON – The ACU Wildcats played Saturday night's game against the Houston Cougars exactly the way Wildcat head coach
Joe Golding wanted them to play.
They out-rebounded the Cougars, limited their second-chance opportunities and won the turnover battle. The one area where the Wildcats didn't win, however, was on the scoreboard as the Cougars took a 71-59 win over the Wildcats in front of 2,007 Hofheinz Pavilion fans and a nationwide audience on ESPN3.
The Wildcats suffered through a tough shooting night, despite having wide-open looks from both inside and beyond the 3-point arc. ACU was just 22 of 67 from the floor (32.8 percent), including 8 of 31 from 3-point range (25.8 percent).
Those numbers were especially magnified in the first half when the Wildcats had a chance to take a lead into halftime. But the Cougars led 33-25 at the break, mainly because the Wildcats hit just 9 of 34 shots in the first 20 minutes (26.5 percent), including 2 of 16 from 3-point range.
But those numbers began to turn in the second half as the Wildcats began to knock down some of those open looks. Houston was able to push its lead to 10 points (53-43) with 10:36 on a 3-pointer by Jherrod Stiggers before the Wildcats ripped off a 14-6 run over the next 5:21 to cut the Cougars' lead to 59-57 with 5:15 to play.
LaDarrien Williams had back-to-back buckets in the run, followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from
Austin Cooke and
Parker Wentz before Williams capped the burst with a jumper to bring the Wildcats to within two points.
But the Cougars dominated the final five minutes of the contest, outscoring ACU 12-2 in the waning moments, including going 8 of 12 from the free throw line. Houston's only two field goals in the final 4:59 came on a jumper by Devonta Pollard and another by Eric Weary Jr.
ACU's only bucket in the final 4:59 was a jumper from
Austin Cooke that cut Houston's lead to 66-59 with 1:10 to play. But the Cougars hit 5 of 6 from the free throw line in the final 59 seconds to seal the victory.
"I thought we got better (tonight)," Golding said. "We played the game the right way and did what we had to do to have a chance to win. We won the rebounding battle (40-38), had more second-chance points (16-9) and limited our turnovers (10 for ACU to 11 for Houston). They hurt us a little bit in transition, but at the end of the day we just didn't shoot the ball very well. But I was really proud of our effort."
Wentz led the Wildcats with 18 points, while Williams finished with 15 points for ACU. Stiggers had a game-high 23 points for Houston, while Pollard had 22 points and 10 rebounds.
