Men's Basketball | 11/25/2015 12:33:00 AM
Box Score FORT COLLLINS, Colo. – It would be hard to imagine a more dramatic turnaround by one team than the one the ACU men's basketball team displayed Tuesday night at Colorado State.
Less than 48 hours after being blown out by Portland in the first game of the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic, the Wildcats rebounded to turn in, arguably, the best performance by an ACU basketball team in almost 20 years. And certainly the best effort against a team the caliber of Colorado State, which last year won 27 games and at 4-0 on the season is receiving votes in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
NEXT UP
Opponent: Florida A&M
When: Friday, 5 p.m.
Where: American Bank Center (Corpus Christi)
Radio: 98.1 FM |
The Wildcats withstood haymaker after haymaker from the Rams and in turn delivered some of their own, sending the game to a first overtime on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by
Jovan Crnic, and then pushing it to double overtime on a fadeaway 3-pointer with 6.5 seconds left in the first overtime by
Austin Cooke.
The Rams, however, finally pulled away in the second overtime to take a 108-100 win over the Wildcats in front of 2,801 wildly entertained fans at the Moby Center on the CSU campus.
The Wildcats got contributions from all over the floor as senior guard
Parker Wentz played perhaps the finest game of his career, leading the Wildcats with 21 points on 7 of 16 shooting (5 of 9 from 3-point range), despite working against, as usual, bigger defenders. Cooke had eight of the Wildcats' first 10 points and finished with 17 points and six rebounds, while
Duran Porter continued to show dramatic improvement in the middle, finishing the game with 12 points, two rebounds and three blocks before fouling out in regulation after, at times, dominating the game in the paint.
Crnic was terrific, finishing with 15 points, three assists and two steals in 38 minutes before he, too, fouled out of the game. Freshman guard
Jaylen Franklin came off the bench to score 13 points and dish out four assists in 29 minutes, while freshman forward
Hayden Howell chipped in with seven points, two rebounds and one steal in 19 minutes.
Leading the way was the senior point guard,
Jalen Little, who grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo., and was playing in front of more than 20 family and friends in his home state. Little played, by far, his best game as a Wildcat, finishing with a double-double with 12 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and only one turnover in 35 minutes. He hit a pair of 3-pointers and his teardrop shot in the lane gave the Wildcats an 87-85 lead with 1:08 left in the first overtime.
He was challenged by his head coach,
Joe Golding, after his performance Sunday night in an 87-57 loss at Portland to be the point guard the Wildcats needed, and he responded with a terrific effort against the Rams.
"He was playing in front of his junior college coach and his family and friends (tonight), and he was a true point guard," Golding said. "He was in complete command of the offense."
Little led an offense that dished out 23 assists on 33 made field goals and committed just 10 turnovers.
Despite all of that, Golding was happy with his team's play, but not with the result; a loss that dropped the Wildcats to 2-2 on the season in advance of Friday's game in Corpus Christi against Florida A&M.
"We have to win a game like this at some point," Golding said, "and that's why I'm upset. Certainly not upset with my team's effort or how we played; just that we didn't finish it off. We're trying to get this program turned around and we need a signature win to make that happen. We had our chances and we let it slip away.
"This was a great game to be part of, and I'm extremely impressed with Colorado State," Golding said. "They are a very well-coached team. I have a tremendous amount of respect for (Colorado State head coach) Larry Eustachy and the way he coaches. Now the challenge for all of us will be to put this behind us and get ready to play in front of what will probably be a small crowd without much energy Friday (at a neutral-site game) in Corpus Christi. We'll have to create our own energy and come out and play well against Florida A&M."
The game's first 39:59 packed enough drama for two games, but it didn't end there. The Wildcats opened the game with a 10-3 burst before CSU answered with a 9-0 run. After a Wentz 3-pointer, CSU responded with an 8-0 run to take a 20-13 lead in the first half.
But the Wildcats came scrapping back, cutting the lead to one point on a couple of occasions before the Rams ran out on a 14-3 run to take the largest lead of the game by either team, 36-24, with 3:04 left in the first half on a 3-pointer by Joe DeCiman.
ACU, however, didn't fold, responding with a 9-0 run to end the half, a burst capped by a jumper from
Drake Green at the buzzer to cut the CSU lead to 36-33 at halftime. The run continued into the second half as ACU pushed out to its largest lead of the game (61-54) on a jumper by Crnic with 7:20 left in regulation, capping a 37-18 ACU run that spanned almost 17 minutes of game time.
And that's when things got interesting.
The two teams battled back and forth through the end of regulation before a pair of free throws by John Gillon put the Rams ahead 76-73 with 24 seconds left. The Wildcats had the last shot, and a Crnic layup was blocked out of bounds with eight seconds, giving ACU one last chance. Crnic made it count as he took a pass from Little about 25 feet from the basket and buried a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime and set off a wild celebration on the ACU bench.
"The play we drew up kind of got thrown out the window with the ball bouncing around out near the 3-point line," Golding said. "At the end of the day, no matter what play you call, you've got to have players make plays and Jovan made a big one."
The Wildcats took an 83-79 lead in the first overtime on a pair of Wentz free throws with 3:37 to play before the Rams answered with four straight points to tie the game. A Gian Clavell three-point play gave the Rams an 88-87 lead with 56 seconds left, and Gillon hit two free throws with 26 seconds left to make it a 90-87 game. But the Wildcats answered again as Cooke buried a 3-pointer from the left arc with 6.1 seconds left to tie the game at 90-90. Gillon had a 3-pointer on line with one second left, but it clanged off the rim, sending the game to a second overtime.
Antwan Scott hit a pair of 3-pointers and converted a three-point play in the second overtime period for Colorado State, and the Rams went 6 for 7 from the free throw line in the final five-minute period to pull away for the win. Franklin led ACU's effort in the second OT period, relentlessly attacking the basket and scoring six of the Wildcats' 10 points in the second extra session.
"A lot of our guys grew up tonight: Jovan, Duran, Jaylen and some others," Golding said. "But, like I said, we have to get ready to play Friday and get a win. But I know this: if we get this kind of effort the rest of the season and into (Southland Conference) play, it'll help us win some games."
