Men's Basketball | 2/15/2015 3:40:00 PM
HUNTSVILLE – The ACU Wildcats return to the hardwood Monday night after week off when they take on league-leading Sam Houston State in a Southland Conference men's basketball game at Johnson Coliseum.
Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m., and the game can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket. Sam Houston State will also provide a Webcast of the game so that fans can watch the game around the world.
Sam Houston State moved into first place in the league standings at 11-1 overall Saturday night after the Bearkats beat Houston Baptist, 87-64, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi stopped Stephen F. Austin's 32-game Southland Conference winning streak with a 71-63 victory. That loss dropped the Lumberjacks into second place in the league standings at 10-1, one-half game behind the Bearkats.
Sam Houston State's win Saturday night pushes the Bearkats to 20-5 on the season, their second straight 20-win season and sixth in the last 10 seasons.
ACU, meanwhile, is in the throes of an eight-game losing streak that has seen the Wildcats fall from 9-7 and 3-0 in league to play to 9-15 and 3-8. The Wildcats are currently tied with New Orleans for 10th place in the league standings.
Sam Houston State enters Monday night's contest with the top scoring defense in the league, allowing just 59.3 points per game, while the Wildcats are 10th in scoring offense at 67.2 ppg. The Bearkats are also lead the league in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to hit just 38.1 percent of their shots on average, and ACU is last in the league in field goal percentage at 41.8 percent shooting on the season.
The Bearkats only have two players averaging in double figures in points on the season: DeMarcus Gatlin (11.3 ppg) and Kaheem Ransom (10.8 ppg), but they have five others players averaging between 7.8 points and 9.6 points per game. Michael Holyfield – who averages 8.4 ppg – is one of the league's best big men and is third in the Southland in rebounding at 7.9 per game.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, are led by a quartet of players averring in double figures on the season: senior guard
Harrison Hawkins (13.9 ppg), junior guard
Parker Wentz (11.8 ppg), senior guard
LaDarrien Williams (10.5 ppg), and junior forward
Austin Cooke (10.1 ppg).
Wentz broke out of a shooting slump in last Monday's 80-61 loss to Lamar as he scored 19 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field, including 2 of 4 from 3-point range. That game was his best offensive output since he went for 29 points on Jan. 13 in ACU's 95-81 win at Northwestern State.
After Monday night's game, ACU has just six games left in the 2014-15 season, starting with a game Saturday (Feb. 21) at Southeastern Louisiana. The game is set for a 7 p.m. tipoff and will be broadcast on ESPN3.
