ACU vs. Nicholls State (
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• ACU vs. McNeese State (
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THIBODAUX, La. – The ACU Wildcats hit the road for the final time this season with a pair of games in southern Louisiana, beginning with Thursday night's contest at Nicholls State and ending with Saturday's game at McNeese State.
The Wildcats will play at Nicholls State at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with Saturday's season road finale at McNeese State set for 3 p.m. The Wildcats are looking for their first road win in Southland Conference play this season and will carry an 11-17 overall mark and 2-9 Southland mark into the final two road games. Both games will be carried locally on 98.1 FM The Ticket.
ACU, though, enters Thursday night's game on a roll offensively, having scored 108, 80 and 124 points their last three wins, which have come against Dallas Christian, Arlington Baptist and Southwestern Adventist, respectively.
ACU went 2-0 last week with wins over Arlington Baptist and Southwestern Adventist to improve to 11-17 on the season with three games left to play. In the Wildcats' 124-57 win over SW Adventist on Saturday, the Wildcats tied the Southland Conference single-game record and broke the ACU single-game record for 3-point field goals in a game with 21 (on 34 attempts).
The 21 3-pointers ties the Southland record set in 2007 by Nicholls State against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The 21 3-pointers shattered the old ACU record of 16 set against West Texas A&M on Feb. 14, 2006. The Wildcats have now hit 238 3-pointers on the season, leaving them four short of breaking the single-season team record of 241 set in 2005-06.
Julian Edmonson tied the school record for 3-pointers in a game with 8, tying the mark set originally by Corey Stone against Arkansas-Little Rock on Dec. 3, 1994, and later tied by David Baxter against Angelo State on Jan. 24, 2005. Edmonson's career-high 33 points is the highest single-game point total by a Wildcat player since Dejan Sencanski scored 33 in a March 1, 2008, game against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
The 124 points scored by the Wildcats in Saturday night's 124-57 win over Southwestern Adventist is the fourth-highest point total by the Wildcats in a game in their history. The all-time record is 130 points vs. Paul Quinn in 1976, followed by 129 vs. Central Oklahoma in 1998 and 128 vs. National Christian in 1995.
Parker Wentz hit 6 of 12 3-point attempts in the game against SW Adventist to give him 71 3-pointers this season on 159 attempts. His single-season percentage of .447 is currently the best in ACU history, and his career percentage of .422 (119 of 282) is also currently first in ACU history.
Nicholls State is 11-12 overall and 8-6 in the Southland and clinched its spot in the league tournament last Saturday with a 68-59 win over McNeese State at Stopher Gym. Sophomore guard T.J. Carpenter had 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals in the win over the Cowboys.
The Colonels are led by Dantrell Thomas at 16.1 points per game, while Jeremy Smith is averaging 13.6 ppg. With four games remaining in the regular season, the Colonels remain in the hunt for a first-round bye in the league tournament.
The Cowboys enter the weekend (Thursday night vs. Incarnate Word and Saturday vs. ACU) at 8-18 overall and 6-8 in league play and still looking for a spot in the conference tournament.
Ledrick Eackles leads the Cowboys in scoring at 16.5 ppg, while Kevin Hardy is at 10.8 ppg and Desharick Guidry is at 10.5 ppg.
