Monday, February 2
Houston, TX
7 p.m.
Abilene Christian
9-13, 3-6SLC
61
at
77
Houston Baptist
10-9, 5-4SLC
1
2
F
Abilene Christian
27
34
61
HBU
30
47
77
Team Stats
ACU
HBU
FG%
.407
.559
3FG%
.250
.267
FT%
.750
.778
RB
26
38
TO
14
16
STL
9
6
Game Leaders
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
10
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Jeremy Enlow
Huskies' inside size too much for Wildcats
2/2/2015 9:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball
HOUSTON – Houston Baptist's superior size inside was more than the ACU Wildcats could overcome Monday night at Sharp Gym as the Huskies extended ACU's season-long losing streak to six games with a 77-61 win in Southland Conference men's basketball action.
The loss drops ACU to 9-13 overall and 3-6 in the Southland, while the Huskies improve to 10-9 and 5-4. ACU will be back in action Saturday when it hosts Southeastern Louisiana in a Southland Conference doubleheader at Moody Coliseum. The women's game is set for a 2 p.m. start, followed by the men's game.
The Huskies have four players 6-7 or taller in their rotation, led by 6-10 freshman center Josh Ibarra, who dominated the game inside. Ibarra finished with a career-high 19 points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds as the Huskies completely overwhelmed the much smaller Wildcats in the paint.
Houston Baptist outscored the Wildcats, 54-26, in the paint, led by Ibarra's career-high, 12 from 6-7 sophomore forward Colter Lasher and a game-high 20 points from junior guard Anthony Odunsi, who made his living Monday night driving into the paint. Those three players combined to hit 22 of 33 shots from the field, the majority of those inside the paint.
While the Huskies were shooting 55.9 percent from the floor (33 of 59, including a blistering 19 of 31 in the second half), the Wildcats hit just 24 of 59 shots from the field (40.7 percent). While LaDarrien Williams (16 points on 5 of 9 shooting) and Austin Cooke (15 points on 5 of 9 shooting) did most of their damage from the outside, the Wildcats had no answer inside other than sophomore Riley Payne, who finished with a career-high 12 points and five rebounds against the much taller Huskies.
But ACU struggled to shoot elsewhere as junior guard Parker Wentz (2 points on 1 of 9 shooting), Jalen Little (2 points on 1 of 3 shooting) and Drake Green (2 points on 1 of 6 shooting) combined to score just six points on 3 of 18 shooting from the field. Wentz – who is fifth all-time in 3-pointers made in ACU history with 174 – failed to make a 3-pointer for only the third time this season and only the 10th time in his 79 games as a Wildcat.
"We just didn't shoot the ball very well (Monday night)," ACU head coach Joe Golding said. "We got some good looks, but we just couldn't knock them down. We didn't have a great start to either half, and that really hurt us. I was proud of the way we fought back in each half, but at the end of the day we just didn't hit enough shots. And everyone knows that we have to knock down shots to win games."
ACU trailed 10-0 in the first half before battling back to close the HBU lead to one point on several occasions, and went to halftime trailing just 30-27. The Wildcats let the Huskies get away from them again early in the second half as HBU pushed its lead out to seven points (36-29) with 16:14 to play on a dunk by Reveal Chukwujekwu.
The Wildcats, however, fought back, getting a layup from Payne, a jumper from Cooke and a 3-pointer from Williams to cut the deficit to 40-39 with 13:33 to play. But the Huskies then took over from there, ripping off a 10-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 50-41 lead with 10:12 left. Marcel Smith capped the run with a 3-pointer to give the Huskies a nine-point lead.
Once again the Wildcats answered with a 6-0 run that cut the lead to 50-47 with 8:45 to play. But that was as close as the Wildcats would get the rest of the night.
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