ABILENE – Everything was set up Saturday afternoon for the ACU Wildcats to pull off a bit of an upset, put an end to their two-game losing streak and get back on a winning track.
And then the Incarnate Word offense that is second in the nation in scoring showed up and took the game over, eventually running away from the Wildcats and taking a 77-61 win in Southland Conference men's action at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats' third straight loss drops them to 9-10 overall and 3-3 in the league, while Incarnate Word improves to 10-5 and 2-3. ACU will be back in action Monday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Sam Houston State in another Southland game at Moody Coliseum.
Incarnate Word – which averages 86.0 points per game – led the Wildcats 42-34 at halftime after blistering the nets in the opening 20 minutes. The Cardinals shot 63.0 percent from the field (17 of 27) in the opening half, led by as many as 12 points and never trailed.
But ACU opened the second half on a 16-8 run that ended with 9:46 to play in the game when
LaDarrien Williams buried a pair of free throws to knot the game at 50-50.
Austin Cooke – who had 14 points in the game – had eight in the run, while
Riley Payne chipped in with four and Williams and
Isaiah Tripp had two apiece.
During that half-opening run, the Cardinals saw senior guard Denzel Livingston – who leads the nation in scoring at better than 23 points per game – go to the bench with 10:40 to play after he was hit with his fourth foul of the game. It appeared that with the game tied and the Cardinals' best player on the bench that the Wildcats had the Cardinals reeling.
But the Cardinals never wavered as they outscored ACU 11-1 over a quick three-minute span to regain control of the game. It started with a jumper by Jontrell Walker with 9:28 to play and was followed by a Kyle Hittle jumper with 8:57 left in the game. After a Williams turnover turned into a Mitchell Badillo fast-break layup, ACU head coach
Joe Golding called a 30-second timeout with his team down 56-50 and 8:41 to play, trying to stem the tide.
The Cardinals, though, kept rolling as Hittle hit a pair of free throws with 7:29 to play and then a 3-pointer with 6:54 left in the game to make it a 61-51 contest. The entire run was pulled off with Livingston, who didn't re-enter the game until 5:51 was left and his team leading 63-54. UIW's lead never dipped below eight points the rest of the way as the Cardinals put away the Wildcats in the final minutes of the contest.
Harrison Hawkins led the Wildcats with 18 points, while Cooke had 14 points. But the Wildcats' 48.9 percent shooting from the field (22 of 45) wasn't enough to offset the Cardinals, who shot 58.0 percent from the field (29 of 50). UIW was led by Hittle's 19 points, Livingston's 17, Walkers 15 and Traylin Farris' 13.
