Men's Basketball | 1/8/2016 11:41:00 AM
Live Audio (ACU) l Live Video l Live StatsTHIBODAUX, La. – The ACU Wildcats will take their two-game winning streak on the road Saturday for another Southland Conference tilt, this time against the road-weary Nicholls Colonels.
Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. Saturday from Stopher Gym. The game can be heard on 98.1 FM with the Voice of the Wildcats,
Grant Boone, calling the action.
The Wildcats got the conference season started on the right foot last Saturday with a 62-61 win over Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark., pushing their winning streak to two games. ACU is now 6-8 on the season and 1-0 in league play, the second straight year it has won its opening game of conference play.
Nicholls, meanwhile, enters Saturday's game at 4-11 overall and 0-1 in league play. The Colonels have played a Murderer's Row-style non-conference schedule, having played at Florida State (109-62 loss), at Hawaii (99-74 loss), at New Mexico (75-63 loss), at San Diego State (84-47 loss), at North Texas (78-60 loss), at SMU (86-42 loss), at Colorado (85-68 loss), at Houston (76-49 loss), and at Memphis (82-46 loss).
The loss at Memphis came Tuesday night at the FedEx Forum with the Tigers ending the first half on a 43-4 run as they cruised to the victory. Nicholls is 0-9 on the road this season, but 3-1 at Stopher Gym, although all three home wins are against non-Division I opponents. The Colonels lost their first home game of the season last Saturday as they dropped a 79-67 decision to Lamar in the Southland Conference-opener for both teams.
ACU enters the game led by three newcomers in freshman guard
Jaylen Franklin, junior wing
Jovan Crnic and freshman forward
Jaren Lewis. Franklin (14.4 points per game), Crnic (9.6 ppg) and Lewis (9.6 ppg) are the team's top three scorers, while Lewis leads the team in rebounding at 5.6 rpg.
Senior center
Duran Porter is one of the top shot-blockers in the league, averaging 1.4 blocks per game to go along with 9.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest. Senior guard
Parker Wentz continues to be one of the league's top 3-point shooting threats, averaging 8.8 points per game and hitting 47.1 percent of his 3-point attempts this season (33 of 70). Senior forward
Austin Cooke is averaging 6.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
Nicholls, meanwhile, is led by Ja'Dante' Frye, who is averaging 16.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, while T.J. Carpenter is averaging 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per contest. Nicholls is shooting just 38.7 percent from the field as a team and is allowing opponents to shoot 48.1 percent from the floor, which is 11
th in the league.
