Game HighlightsABILENE – Freshman forward
Jaren Lewis led five ACU players in double figures Friday night as the Wildcats opened their third season at the NCAA Division I level with a 94-63 win over the University of the Southwest at Moody Coliseum.
Lewis – a freshman from Orlando, Fla. – had 18 points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes to lead all scorers, and was joined in double figures by teammates
Jaylen Franklin (freshman from Little Rock, Ark.) and
Jovan Crnic (junior transfer from Nis, Serbia) with 15 apiece, senior guard
Parker Wentz with 14 and freshman
Hayden Farquhar (Throckmorton High School) with 10 points. Senior
Austin Cooke was active on the glass, finishing with eight points and a career-best 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.
"Jaren really finished well (Friday), and he really sparked us in the second half," ACU head coach
Joe Golding. "Our defense wasn't great in the first half, but I thought we really turned it on in the second half and guarded well. We've got to be able to do that and play with great energy on both ends of the floor every night we're on the floor. We're young and we're growing, but I like the way we started."
The Wildcats led just 42-38 at halftime, but blew out the Mustangs, 52-25, in the second half, thanks to the spark Lewis provided. After scoring just four points and grabbing one rebound in seven minutes of first-half action, Lewis had 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists, one block and three steals in 15 minutes of second-half action.
ACU's lead was trimmed to 63-54 with 10:03 to play after a three-point play by Jose Lara before the Wildcats blew the game open with a 12-0 run. The outburst was sparked by Lewis, Isaiah Trip and Wentz as ACU increased its lead to 75-54 in less than 150 seconds.
Lewis hit a layup before Tripp had a steal and a layup to push the lead to 13 points (67-54) with 9:05 to play. After Lewis ripped down a defensive rebound and pushed the ball up the floor, he found Wentz open in the corner for a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 70-54 with 8:35 to play. After Tripp gathered in a defensive rebound a few seconds later, he pushed the ball up the floor and again found an open Wentz on the left arc and his 3-pointer pushed the lead to 73-54 with 8:13 to play, brought the crowd of 1,150 to its feet and forced a timeout from USW head coach Charles Goar.
Shortly after the timeout, Lewis came up with a steal, pushed the ball ahead before Tripp eventually found Farquhar for a short jumper to push the lead to 21 points (75-54) with 7:31 left in the game. ACU's lead would not dip below 19 points the rest of the way as Franklin, Lewis and Farquhar controlled the game the rest of the way for ACU.
The Wildcats scored 32 points in the paint and the bench outscored USW's 42-9. The Mustangs entered the game averaging 103.8 points per game through their first five games, and early on they looked like they were shooting for that again as they hit 11 of their first 17 shots. But the ACU defense clamped down and the Mustangs hit just 12 of their final 40 shots, including only 10 of 29 in the second half when the Wildcats pulled away.
ACU had 23 assists on 37 baskets as the Wildcats shot 50.7 percent from the field (37 of 73), including 33.3 percent from 3-point range (5 of 15). The Wildcats forced 25 turnovers and had 14 steals led by the three from Lewis.
The Wildcats (1-0) will be back in action Tuesday when they take on Howard Payne in a non-conference game set to start at 7 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
