NATCHITOCHES, La. - Abilene Christian's men's basketball team recorded a signature victory for the program Tuesday night as the Wildcats held off one of the Southland Conference's premier teams in Northwestern State, 95-81, at Prather Coliseum.
The hard-fought triumph over one of the nation's highest scoring teams lifted the Wildcats' season record to 9-7 and pushed their league mark to 3-0, which is ACU's best start in conference since 1986-87 when the Purple and White started Lone Star Conference play at 6-0.
The loss dropped Northwestern State to 7-8 overall and 2-2 vs. the Southland as head coach Mike McConathy will have to wait until Saturday, Jan. 17, vs. Lamar for another shot at career win No. 600.
In a game that was equally frenetic and hostile throughout all 40 minutes of action, the Wildcats possessed paticence, composure and confidence in shooting .576 from the floor (34 of 59), which included a stunning .593 percent from 3-point range (16 of 27). Then in the second half as NSU started to make one last push, the Wildcats' cool and calm demeanor resulted in perfection at the free-throw line (11 of 11). Â
"This was a great win," said fourth-year head coach
Joe Golding, whose Wildcats hadn't won a true road game prior to tonight since Feb. 27, 2013, at Incarnate Word, snapping a 20-game skid. "The guys have shown so much confidence since our trip to Las Vegas and really have turned around the whole program as of late. (Tuesday night) we came right at them. We had great looks, hit key shots and didn't turn it over. We also did a great job sharing the ball with 17 assists."
There were many heroic moments for the Wildcats in the game, but they were largely led from the get-go by veteran guards
Harrison Hawkins,
LaDarrien Williams and
Parker Wentz, who combined to score 80 of the team's 95 points.
Hawkins scored a career-high 31 points on 11 of 20 shooting (5 of 10 from 3-point range), while Wentz just missed his second 30-point effort of the season with 29 points on 10 of 14 shooting (7Â of 9 from 3-point range). And Williams, coming off the bench, chipped in 20 points (9 of 15 shooting from the field) and six assists.
Although the Wildcats led by double-digits for a majority of the second half, it always felt like a one-possession game because of the Demons' unstoppable speed and accuracy, not to mention their ability to get to the free-throw line, which they did 24 times tonight (20-24).
NSU eventually whittled ACU's advantage to single digits at 87-78 and 2:20 remaining following a layup by Tra'von Joseph. However, the Demons' sophomore guard missed his foul shot and the defensive rebound was pulled down by Williams.
The ball soon found its way back to Hawkins who dribbled the shot clock down to three seconds before firing up a long-range jumper that found the bottom of the bucket to put ACU ahead by double digits for good. Seconds later Hawkins came up with a huge save after a pair of free throws by Zeek Woodley made it 91-81 with 1:12 to go. Hawkins had just lost the ball on ACU's end of the court, but was able to snatch it back from Jalan West right as the Demons' dynamic guard was about to cross into the 3-point arc.
Soon afterward junior forward
Austin Cooke hit two big free throws to finish with eight points in the second half, and then Hawkins sank two more for the game's final points. Earlier in the second half, Cooke buried a huge 3-pointer right after ACU called a timeout following a West jumper that made it 82-70 with 3:43 remaining.
ACU went toe-to-toe with the Demons throughout the first half and entered the break ahead 46-37, bolstered by five treys from Wentz and an additional three from Hawkins. Overall, the Wildcats shot a sensational 57.6 percent (19 of 33) during the first 20 minutes of action and were 8 of 17 from 3-point range (.471), but NSU proved tough to bottle up on the offensive end.
Tony Dobbinson nearly equaled Wentz' first-half output with 19 points of his own off the bench, which included an off-balance 3-point launch at the halftime buzzer. Dobbinson shot 7 of 10 from the field in the first half and knocked down 4 of 7 3-point attempts. He was then held to just two points the rest of the game.
Northwestern State never held the lead in the game, although the Demons tied the score on three occassions and as late as the 14-minute mark on a jumper by Matt Killian. From there Hawkins hit a go-ahead trey, and following a missed 3-pointer by Dobbinson, Williams hit a soft jumper from just outside the paint to put the Wildcats ahead by five points, 16-11.
NSU then cut its deficit to three on a bucket by West, but Wentz responded with consecutive triples within a 23-second stretch. ACU grabbed its first double-digit lead with 8:08 to go following a layup by Williams and led by as many as 16 points after Wentz again struck quickly with triples at the 5:50 and 5:08 marks.
The Wildcats return to action Saturday at 11 a.m. with a Southland Conference game vs. Stephen F. Austin that will be nationally televised on the CBS Sports Network. The women's game vs. the Ladyjacks follows at 2 p.m.
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