HAMMOND, La. – Zay Jackson scored 24 points Saturday night to help Southeastern Louisiana rally from a nine-point first-half deficit and beat the ACU Wildcats, 55-54, in Southland Conference men's basketball action.
The loss is the 10th straight for the Wildcats, who are now 9-17 overall and 3-10 in league play. The Lions, meanwhile, improve to 9-17 and 6-7 in the league. ACU will be back in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Moody Coliseum.
ACU led by as many as nine points in the first half (33-24 with 57 seconds left in the half) before Jackson hit a pair of jumpers in the final four seconds to cut the Wildcats' lead to 33-28 at the break. Neither team could pull away in a second half that was tight all the way through the game's final 20 minutes.
The Wildcats led 51-46 with 4:16 to play after a 3-pointer from
Parker Wentz, who led the Wildcats with 22 points. But the Lions answered with a 7-0 run over the next couple of minutes to take a 53-51 lead on a Cedric Jenkins steal and layup with 2:25 to play.
With 1:37 to play, Wentz drove inside and was fouled by Jenkins and went to the line to try and tie the game. The 84 percent free-throw shooter missed the first and hit the second to leave the Wildcats trailing 53-52.
With 1:02 to play, Jackson hit a jumper to push the Lions' lead back to three points at 55-52. The Wildcats came back down the floor and
LaDarrien Williams was fouled by Jimmie Duplessis, and he hit both free throws to make it a 55-54 game with 45 seconds to play.
Needing a stop and a score to put an end to its losing streak, the Wildcats got a stop when Jackson missed a jumper with seven seconds left and
Austin Cooke secured his 13th rebound of the game. Williams drove the ball up court and went into the lane where his shot at the buzzer fell short, giving the Lions the win.
Wentz finished with 22 points on 7 of 11 shooting (4 of 7 from 3-point range), while Cooke recorded a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds in 40 minutes.
Jackson had 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting (2 of 5 from 3-point range) for the Lions, who didn't have any other player with more than eight points in the contest.
