ABILENE – Needing a win to wash away the taste of a bitter one-point loss last Saturday at Nicholls, the ACU Wildcats turned to their usual suspects Tuesday night in their pursuit of a home Southland Conference win over Northwestern State.
But midway through the second half and the Demons on the brink of getting right back in the thick of the contest, it was a pair of role players off the bench who sparked the Wildcats to an 87-72 win over Northwestern State in front of a crowd of 1,512 fans at Moody Coliseum.
Senior
Parker Wentz (17 points on 6 of 11 shooting from the field, including 3 of 8 from 3-point range), freshman
Jaylen Franklin (20 points, including 12 of 16 from the free throw line), freshman
Jaren Lewis (eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds) and senior point guard
Jalen Little (four points and 11 assists in his first start since Dec. 3 because of injury) played the starring roles for the Wildcats in their second straight win over Northwestern State.
But it was sophomore guard
Isaiah Tripp and freshman post
Hayden Farquhar who sparked the Wildcats to the win with their play off the bench in the final 10 minutes of the game. Tripp would finish with a career-high 12 points – all coming in a key 3-minute, 44-second stretch of the second half – and Farquhar had 10 points and four rebounds.
ACU, which led by as many as 14 points in the second half, saw its lead shrink to just six points (61-55) with 9:47 left, thanks to an offense that shot almost 70 percent from the floor in the first 10 minutes of the half. Northwestern State guard Zeke Woodley, who is 11
th in the nation in scoring, was terrific with 26 points, and he and Devonte Hall (15 points) and long-range shooter Sabri Thompson (eight points) led the Demons' second-half comeback.
With the ACU lead down to six points, Tripp and Farquhar each entered the game, and both began to make good things happen for the Wildcats. Farquhar buried his second 3-pointer of the game with 8:52 left to play, stretching the Wildcat lead to 64-55 and kick-starting a game-ending 26-17 run for ACU.
After a Hall jumper, Tripp came back down the floor and converted a three-point play to give ACU a 67-57 lead with 8:12 to play. After a Woodley 3-pointer, Tripp hit two free throws and then Ta'Jon Welcome buried a short jumper to cut ACU's lead back to 69-62.
But Tripp – in his best game as a Wildcat – knocked down a jumper with 6:01 to play to push ACU's lead back to 71-62. Woodley hit a pair of free throws before Farquhar hit a layup with 4:51 to play to make it 73-64.
And that's when things got interesting and the edge that both teams played with for most of the game got the best of Tripp and Thompson. After a Farquhar steal and pass ahead to Franklin, Tripp took a feed from the ACU freshman and hit a driving layup, tumbling to the floor after being fouled by Thompson. Both players were assessed technical fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct and after Tripp finished his three-point play with a free throw, Woodley knocked down a pair of free throws for Northwestern State. Tripp then went to the line to shoot the technical free throws, making both to give ACU a 78-66 lead with 4:28 left, capping his best sequence as a Wildcat.
ACU would hit 9 of 12 from the free throw line in the final 1:42 to pull away for the win. Franklin made 6 of 8 from the stripe in that span, while
Duran Porter (nine points, seven rebounds, one block and one steal) was 3 for 4.
And when he could finally relax at the end of a hard-fought win over a better-than-their-record-indicates Demons team, which is playing the season without its best player in guard Jalan West. The senior was injured in the final seconds of the season-opening loss at Ole Miss and will not return this season.
"First, I have the utmost respect for (Northwestern State head coach) Mike McConathy and Northwestern State," Golding said. "I hold in very high regard what he's built over the years at Northwestern State. I know their record coming into this game (3-10 overall and 0-3 in the Southland) wasn't what everyone expects to see out of them, but I knew that was a good team. We watched their last eight games, and you could tell in the last three that were starting to figure some things out and starting to play a lot better. They're playing their best basketball of the season right now, and I was really nervous about this one."
But ACU led almost wire-to-wire, trailing just once (by one point) and leading all just 2:42 of the 40-minute contest. Much of the credit for that would normally go to the starters. But Tuesday night it was clear the bench played a huge role in the win.
"I was really proud of our guys for the way they bounced back from a tough loss at Nicholls and came out ready to play," Golding said. "I could tell (Monday night) at practice that they were ready to play, and it carried over to shoot around (earlier Tuesday) and the game. I saw a lot of growth in our team in the way we were able to get the lead, take their best punch and then stretch the lead back out to double digits.
"I told Tripp that he was going to get an opportunity in this game, and I'm really proud of him for embracing the chance," Golding continued. "And then we thought we could go to Farquhar and give him a chance to do some things, and he comes in and knocks down two big 3-pointers, gets some rebounds, makes some hustle plays and gets things going in the right direction."
The Wildcats out-rebounded the Demons (43-29), outscored them in the paint (43-24), outscored them off turnovers (20-14), outscored them on the fast break (20-2) and outscored them off the bench (29-2).
