Men's Basketball | 12/5/2015 4:45:00 PM
Box Score Final box score l
Play by playLINCOLN, Neb. – The ACU Wildcats went into Saturday's game at Nebraska knowing that controlling the pace and playing better defensively than they did in Thursday's home loss to New Hampshire would be the key in the staying in the game against the Cornhuskers.
The Wildcats played it almost to perfection Saturday, but too many turnovers and too many Cornhusker free throws combined to push the Cornhuskers to a 73-63 win over a game Wildcat squad in front of 10,205 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Just two days after allowing New Hampshire to do almost whatever it wanted in an 86-75 win over ACU, the Wildcats held Nebraska to 42.9 percent shooting from the floor (21 of 49) and a meager 25 percent from the 3-point line (4 of 16). The difference in the game came on ACU turnovers (20 that turned into 25 Nebraska points) and 36 Cornhusker trips to the free throw line where they made 27 shots.
ACU, meanwhile, played one of its best games of the season against a Big Ten team, shooting 46.8 percent from the floor (22 of 47) and hit 14 of 17 free throws. The Wildcats, however, have been averaging 24 free throws per game and couldn't get there enough in Saturday's game to offset a 30-point, seven-rebound effort by Kansas transfer Andrew White III. Shavon Shields had 21 points for the Cornhuskers and Tai Webster had 10 and no other Nebraska player had more than three points.
""I thought our guys played well," ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "We were able to get some stops in the first half, but we let them get to the free throw line too much in the second half. Shields is a great player and they have more size than we could put out there. We have to do a better job of guarding without fouling.
"We turned the ball over too much, but I thought our guys competed for 40 minutes," he said. "I'm very proud of the way this team came on the road and competed for 40 minutes against a solid Big Ten team. Our team is growing up and I believe it will show down the road."
The game was close throughout, although Nebraska was able to push out to its largest lead of the day (61-48) on a pair of free throws by White with 10:30 left in the game. But ACU answered with an 8-2 run over the next 3:30 to cut the lead down to 63-56.
Duran Porter – who was brilliant in the second half, scoring 15 of his team-high 17 points in the final 20 minutes – had two free throws, followed by a block, defensive rebound and two more free throws on the Wildcats' ensuing possession.
Drake Green hit a jumper to make it a 63-54 game with 8:30 to play before
Parker Wentz hit a pair of free throws to make it 63-56 with seven minutes to play.
But the Cornhuskers answered with a quick 5-0 run on a free throw by White, a layup by Benny Parker and a driving layup by White, giving Nebraska a 68-56 lead with 5:46 to play. The Wildcats didn't get closer than eight points the rest of the way, although the Cornhuskers were never really able to put the pesky Wildcats away on their home floor.
"We kept answering, and that's important when you go on the road," Golding said. "We did a good job controlling the pace and keeping the crowd out of it. Every time they started to get into it we hit a shot and that's important. We've got a bunch of guys who have never played in an arena like this, and I was proud of the way we kept fighting."
As they did two weeks ago in a double-overtime loss at Colorado State, the Wildcats came out strong, to open the game and opened up as much as a 12-7 lead with 14:50 left in the first half on a 3-pointer by
Jovan Crnic. Nebraska quickly answered with a 13-3 run to take a 20-15 lead on a layup by Glynn Watson Jr. with 10 minutes left in the first half.
After ACU cut the lead to 20-19, the Cornhuskers ran out to leads of 26-19 and 28-21, the latter coming with 5:03 to play in the first half. But Crnic hit a jumper and
Austin Cooke buried a 3-pointer to make it a 28-26 game before Benny Parker hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it a 29-26 game. ACU freshman guard
Jaylen Franklin – who alternated with Crnic at point guard in light of the injured
Jalen Little's absence – converted a three-point play to tie the game 29-29 with 2:34 left, and then he gave ACU a 31-29 lead with 2:19 left on a steal and layup.
Shields hit a layup with 1:45 left in the half to tie the game at 31-31 before Wentz buried two free throws to give ACU a 33-31 lead with 1:21 left in the half. Shields followed with a jumper and White with a 3-pointer at the 34-second mark before Franklin ended the half with a jumper with two seconds left to cut Nebraska's halftime lead to 36-34.
The Cornhuskers then took advantage of 22 trips to the free throw line in the second (ACU went there just eight times), hitting 17 of those to keep the lead and push its record to 6-3 on the season. The Wildcats, however, held the Cornhuskers to just 39.1 percent shooting in the second half (9 for 23).
"I think that goes back to us competing on the defensive end," Golding said. "We didn't do it against New Hampshire and we challenged our guys (Friday night) to compete on the defensive end against Nebraska. We didn't spend much time on Nebraska; we locked in ourselves and tried to get better defensively. We were better defensively (Saturday). Nebraska didn't get many easy shots. White got loose on us in the second half, but it's tough because Shields is such a tough guard and you can't double them both."
Porter led the Wildcats with his 17-point effort, while Franklin had 14 and Crnic 13 for the Wildcats, although Franklin had just two points in the second half and Crnic one.
"Duran gives us a chance because if we can score it inside it really helps," Golding said. "Easy buckets just deflate a team when you can get inside and make easy shots. Duran has been playing at a high level, and if he can give us that in (Southland) conference play we've got a chance to do some good things.
"Jaylen (Franklin) and Jovan were good (Saturday), too," Golding said. "J Frank is so good at getting to the basket, and he was doing it (Saturday) against grown men in the Big Ten. Hew grew up and played really well as did Jovan. I'm extremely proud of the way our guys went on the road, played hard for 40 minutes in a great environment and fought for 40 minutes. If we can do that when we hit conference play, we've got a chance to do some special things."
