CONWAY, Ark. – It wasn't pretty, but it certainly was dramatic. And at the end of the day it was a Southland Conference road win for the ACU Wildcats.
And for a program trying to learn how to win games anywhere – much less on the road – that's all that counts.
A pair of
Duran Porter free throws with 21.6 seconds left and a 3-point miss by Jordan Howard helped the Wildcats survive Saturday night for a 62-61 win over Central Arkansas in the conference-opener for both teams at the Farris Center.
The win for the Wildcats pushes them to 6-8 overall and 1-0 in the conference, while the Bears fall to 1-10 and 0-1. ACU is off until next Saturday (Jan. 9) when it takes on Nicholls in Thibodaux, La.
"I told my coaching staff that the first one (conference win) is the hardest to get," ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "We had a 14-point lead in the second half and didn't know how to finish the game. But that's part of the growth process of this program. This is a huge win for us because it's a conference win and it's a conference win on the road. It wasn't very pretty at times, but we'll take it and get ready to play Nicholls."
The ugly Saturday night came in the form of ACU's 30 percent shooting from the floor in the second half (9 of 30) when they built as much as a 14-point lead midway through the final half before watching it disintegrate.
The dramatic came in the final three minutes as the Bears made a furious rally in the latter stages of the game. ACU led 57-49 after back-to-back buckets by
Jaylen Franklin, including a steal and dunk to give the Wildcats a 57-49 lead with 4:03 to play in the game.
ACU's lead was six points (59-53) with 2:03 to play after a jumper by freshman
Jaren Lewis before Jordan Howard hit a pair of free throws with 1:54 to play to cut the Wildcats' advantage to 59-55. Franklin then hit the second of two free throws before Boo Milligan was fouled on a layup and hit a free throw to cut the Wildcat lead to 60-59 with 56 seconds to play.
On the Wildcats' ensuing possession,
Parker Wentz missed a free throws and Lewis came up with the offensive rebound to give ACU a new shot clock. Lewis then missed a jumper and Porter was fouled by Justin Foreman with 21.6 seconds to play. Porter drilled both free throws to give ACU A 62-59 lead before Foreman drove the length of the floor and hit a layup with eight seconds to play.
Wentz was fouled on the inbounds pass and the senior went to the free throw line where he's a career 85-percent free throw shooter. But he missed the front end of the one-and-one situation and UCA grabbed the offensive rebound. However, Howard's tough 3-pointer – taken with
Jalen Little providing tough defense – was off the mark and the Wildcats had escaped with their sixth win of the season.
"We got the big lead in the second half (51-37 with 11:30 to play on a 3-pointer by
Austin Cooke) and then we got a little bit scared to win," Golding said. "But we haven't been in these types of situations very much against NCAA Division I opponents, and so it's a learning opportunity for our guys. We've got to be in more and more of these situations and continue to learn to handle them."
The Wildcats never trailed in the game, carrying a 36-28 lead into halftime thanks to a buzzer-beating jumper from Crnic that gave ACU the eight-point advantage. ACU overcame 12 first-half turnovers by going 9 of 10 from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes and 12 of 25 from the field while the Bears were a meager 11 of 28 from the field and only 2 of 2 from the line.
ACU controlled the second half for the most part until the game's waning moments. Cooke's 3-pointer with 11:30 to play as the shot block buzzer went off gave ACU its biggest lead of the game (51-37), setting the stage for the dramatic final moments.
After turning the ball over 12 times in the first half, ACU had just four turnovers in the second half, but never found its shooting range in the second half (9 of 30 from the field, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range). But the Wildcats canned 7 of 9 from the free throw line in the second half, while UCA was just 9 of 20 from the stripe in the final 20 minutes. Zuilhof was 2 of 9 from the free throw line.
Lewis led the Wildcats with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Porter had his first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Franklin – playing in front of a large contingent of family and friends from his hometown of Little Rock, Ark. – finished with 13 points, three rebounds and two steals.
