PORTLAND, Ore. – The ACU Wildcats ran into a first-half offensive buzzsaw Sunday night in the first game of the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic as they dropped their first road game of the season, 87-57, to Portland University at the Chiles Center on the Portland campus.
The Pilots shot a blistering 51.4 percent from the field in the game's opening 20 minutes, including 8 of 13 from 3-point range (62 percent). Portland point guard Alec Wintering was 3 for 3 from long range in the first half, while his backcourt mate Bryce Pressley was 2 for 3 as they had 13 and 10 points, respectively, in the first half.
ACU, meanwhile, hit just 3 of 24 shots from the field in the first half (13 percent), missed 10 shots in the paint, went 0 for 7 from 3-point range and, was out-rebounded 24-17 and committed 10 turnovers. The Wildcats' last field goal of the first half was a tip-in by
Austin Cooke with 9:09 left in the first half to make it a 31-9 game. The Wildcats were 0 for their last 12 from the field the rest of the first half.
"Obviously we weren't very good in the first half," ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "We've got a lot of young guys and this was their first road game at a Division I arena, and we had a bit of the 'deer in the headlights' look about us."
The Wildcats, though, responded in the second half by outscoring the Pilots, 42-39, to win the second 20 minutes.
"We challenged our guys at halftime to come out and be aggressive and win the second half," Golding said. "I was proud of the way we responded to that. Now we have to watch the tape, get better and put this behind us."
Duran Porter led the Wildcats with 14 points with 10 of those coming in the second half.
Austin Cooke and
Jovan Crnic had seven points apiece for the Wildcats, who shot 43 percent from the field in the second half (12 of 28).
