Hot-shooting Wildcats set to host 'Jacks, CBS

Men's Basketball | 1/16/2015 4:36:00 PM

ABILENE – The ACU men's basketball team returns to Moody Coliseum on Saturday coming off the biggest win of the Joe Golding Era and, quite possibly, one of the biggest wins in program history. And what awaits the Wildcats? Only the best team in the Southland Conference in Stephen F. Austin and a national television audience on CBS Sports Network.

Tipoff for the game between the Wildcats and Lumberjacks is set for 11 a.m. in the first nationally televised basketball game ever from Moody Coliseum. The game will be available on CBS Sports Network and will be called by Grant Boone (play-by-play) and Van Chancellor (analyst), legendary women's' collegiate coach at Ole Miss and LSU before he coached the Houston Comets to four WNBA championships and won an Olympic gold medal as the coach of the 2004 U.S. women's Olympic team.

The game can also be heard locally on 98.1 FM The Ticket or online at www.the98x.com with Al Pickett calling the play-by-play. Because of the national TV broadcast, no ACU video feed will be available. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network, which is found in Abilene on Suddenlink (channel 512), DirecTV (channel 221) and Dish Network (channel 158).

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students (those younger than age 5 get in free). Half-price tickets are available with a military ID. ACU students, faculty and staff receive free admission. Also, all  ACU fans are asked to wear purple on "Get Your Purple On" Day. Free breakfast burritos will be served to the first 500 ACU students through the doors, and purple T-shirts will be given away while supplies last.

The Wildcats are 9-7 overall and 3-0 in Southland play after last Tuesday's 95-81 win at Northwestern State. The win snapped the Wildcats' 20-game road losing streak as they won for the third straight time and fifth time in the last six games. At 9-7, the Wildcats are at least two games above .500 this late in the season for the first time since the 2007-08 season when they finished 20-9. ACU is also 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1986-87 season when the Wildcats started Lone Star Conference play 6-0 on their way to a conference title.

In the win at Northwestern State, hot-shooting guards Harrison Hawkins (31) points, Parker Wentz (29 points) and LaDarrien Williams (20) scored 80 of ACU's 95 points and contributed mightily to the team's 16 of 27 three-point field goal shooting (.593 percent).

The Lumberjacks enter the game at 13-3 overall and 3-0 in league play after Tuesday night's 109-58 pasting of winless Central Arkansas. The Lumberjacks – who have won 12 straight games overall and 25 straight conference games – are led by two of the finest players in the Southland Conference in senior forward Jacob Parker (13.6 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game) and redshirt junior guard / forward Thomas Walkup (13.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg).

The Lumberjacks have won back-to-back conference titles, and last year knocked off Virginia Commonwealth in an overtime t hriller in the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to UCLA in the third round.

ACU NOTES
HOME SWEET HOME
The Wildcats are back in the friendly confines of Moody Coliseum where they are 6-1 this season and have won five straight after losing to Duquesne on Nov. 22. ... The Wildcats have outscored their opponenents by an average margin of almost 17.0 ppg in those seven home contests and are shootimg a blistering 46.1 percent from the field compared to 40.3 percent for opponents. ... The disparity is even greater beyong the 3-point arc where ACU is shooting 42.2 percent at home compared to just 30.3 percent forthe opposition. ... Junior guard Parker Wentz is averaging 16.7 ppg in seven home games, while Harrison Hawkins (15.0 ppg) and LaDarrien Williams (12.3 ppg) are also averaging in double figures in seven home contests.

LINEUP CHANGE PAYING OFF FOR ACU
It's no coincidence that ACU's mid-season turnaround occurred at the same time head coach Joe Golding switched the roles of Harrison Hawkins and LaDarrien Williams. ... Williams had been
starting at guard with Hawkins coming in off the bench as the team's sixth man. ... But Golding made the decision beofre the Dec. 22 game against South Carolina State to switch thoe two, and it began paying immediate dividends. ... Since the switch, Hawkins is averaging 21.0 ppg and has scored at least 20 points in four straight games, including a career-high 31 points Tuesday in the win over Northwestern State. ... He buried a career-high 11 field goals in the win over the Demons, and he's shooting a blistering 53.8 percent from the field in the Wildcats' last six games. ... Williams has been just as effective coming off the bench as he's averaged 15.3 ppg and shooting 47.3 from the floor.

WENTZ WARMING UP
Junior guard Parker Wentz had one of the finest games of his career Tuesday night in the win over Northwestern State, hitting 10 of 14 shots from the field, including 7 of 9 from 3-point range. ... Wentz's 29 points were two off his career high of 31 (Nov. 22 vs. Duquesne), and his 7 3-pointers made set a new personal single-game record and left him one short of tying ACU's single-game record. ... If his stats counted in the NCAA rankings, Wentz would be eighth in NCAA Division I basketball in 3-point field goal percentage (48.3 percent on 43 of 89 shooting), and he would be tied for 45th in the country in 3-point field goals made (43). ... Wentz is second in the Southland Conference in 3-point field goals (43) and field goal percentage (48.3 percent). ... He is currently sixth in ACU history in career 3-point FG made (170), seventh in 3-point FG attempts (390) and first in career percentage (43.6 percent). ... He is five 3-point FGs made from passing David Baxter (174 3-point FGs from 2003-05) for fifth place, and six attempts from passing Jason Millwee (390 attempts from 1992-97) for sixth place.

HEATING UP FROM DISTANCE
As the Wildcats have turned their season around in the last six games, one glaring reason for the turnaround is the team's 3-point shooting. ... In the first 13 games of the season the Wildcats shot 34.6 percent from beyond the arc (74 of 214), but in the last six games they've blistered the nets to the tune of 46.3 percent ... ACU has hit 63 of 136 3-pointers in their last six games, including 10 of 20 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 23, 11 of 18 vs. Central Arkansas on Jan. 4 and 16 of 27 Tuesday night at Northwestern State.