Men's Basketball | 1/31/2015 9:41:00 PM
BEAUMONT – Lamar ripped off a 17-0 run over a five-minute stretch midway through the second half Saturday as the Cardinals dealt the ACU Wildcats their fifth straight loss with an 84-74 win in a Southland Conference men's basketball game at the Montagne Center.
Lamar senior guard Anthony Holliday – one of the top scorers in the Southland Conference – had 13 of his team-high 29 points in the 17-point spurt. The loss drops the Wildcats to 9-12 overall and 3-5 in the Southland and negated a career-best performance by senior guard
Harrison Hawkins, who poured in 33 points on 11 of 15 shooting.
The win pushes the Cardinals to 11-10 overall and 5-4 in the Southland. The Wildcats will play Monday at 7 p.m. in Houston against Houston Baptist before returning home to play Southeastern Louisiana at 4 p.m. Saturday. ACU and Lamar will play again on Monday, Feb. 9, at the Culwell Center in Garland.
The first 27 minutes of the contest provided an entertaining, back-and-forth game with each team matching the other shot for shot. Lamar ran out to a 13-3 lead only to see ACU reel off 16 straight points to go up 19-13. That's the way the rest of the first half went as the teams went to the locker room tied 39-39.
The second half started much the same way before Lamar ran out to an eight-point lead (55-47), its largest of the night to that point. But ACU answered back with seven straight points on a 3-pointer from Hawkins, a layup by
Parker Wentz and a dunk from
Duran Porter, cutting the Lamar lead to 55-54 with 12:43 left.
But the Cardinals then took control of the game with the game-changing run. ACU went 0 for 5 from the field and turned the ball over on three straight possessions, all three of which led to points by Holliday on the other end of the floor.
The closest ACU would get the rest of the way was nine points as the Cardinals were able to keep their lead between nine and 17 points the rest of the night.
Hawkins led all scorers with 33 points, but he was the only Wildcat to finish in double figures.
