ABILENE – ACU forward
Jaren Lewis scored a team-high 22 points and redshirt freshman post
Jalone Friday recorded his first career double-double and the Wildcats were able to hold off a game squad from Randall University, 78-74, Wednesday night in Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats were able to survive a long-range shooting display by Abilene native and Abilene Christian High School graduate Kashus Lyons, who scored a game-high 29 points on 10 of 19 shooting, including 9 of 16 from 3-point range. Lyons also had eight rebounds in 40 minutes for the Saints, who are the No. 1-ranked Division II team in the National Christian College Athletic Association.
ACU held a comfortable 61-41 lead with 13:18 to play after a layup from Friday gave the Wildcat their first 20-point lead of the night. But the Saints outscored the Wildcats 27-11 over the next 12 minutes to cut ACU's lead to 72-68 with 1:43 t play. Lyons hit five 3-pointers in the run and scored 15 of his team's 27 points, while Trey Sneed had six of his 17 points in the run.
Lyons hit two more 3-pointers in the final 60 seconds to pull the Saints to within 77-74 with eight seconds left, but Lewis hit 1 of 2 free throws with six seconds to play to gave the Wildcats the 78-74 win.
The first half was a fairly close tilt until the Wildcats were able to pull away from the Saints in the final 5:40 of the first half. Trey Sneed hit a layup for Randall to cut the ACU lead to 27-25 with 5:51 left in the half, but it was all ACU after that as the Wildcats outscored the Saints 16-4 the rest of the way.
Lewis scored six of his 16 first-half points in the final 5:40 0f the half to help the Wildcats pull away from the Saints.
Jovan Crnic and
Isaiah Tripp each hit 3-pointers in the run, and Friday and
Jaylen Franklin each had two points in the half-ending run that put the Wildcats up 43-29.
ACU is now 6-3 on the season, while the Saints fall to 4-8 on the season.
Key Stats
• The Wildcats entered the 2016-17 season having lost two of the top 3-point shooters in program history off last year's team, including the top shooter by percentage in
Parker Wentz. However, the Wildcats hit 9 of 19 3-point attempts Wednesday night against Randall to raise their shooting percentage from beyond the arc to 37.3 percent on the season (60 of 161). ACU is led in 3-point shooting by junior guard
Drake Green, who has now hit 13 of 30 shots from long range (43.3 percent).
Notable
• The Wildcats had a 43-29 halftime lead, marking the eighth time in nine games this season that ACU has led after the first 20 minutes. The Wildcats are 5-2 in games in which they led at the half with the only losses coming at home against Charleston Southern on Nov. 22 and at Oklahoma on Nov. 25.
• The Wildcats' 14-point halftime lead was their third-largest halftime lead of the season behind 17-point leads at New Hampshire (Nov. 17) and Northern New Mexico (Dec. 10).
Quotable
"We didn't do a good job guarding the 3-point shot, and that's something we've done a good job guarding all season. What they were doing wasn't rocket science. They ran the dribble weave for about 20 seconds and then pulled up for a 3-pointer. We could have adjusted to some of that, but we wanted to see how our guys handled certain situations. Obviously we as coaches didn't do a good job preparing our guys to play Randall, but you have to give those guys some credit. They had a good plan and executed it. Now we've got to get ourselves straightened out and go to California and get ready to play two good games." – ACU head coach Joe Golding
Up Next
The Wildcats will be back on the road for their next four games, including two upcoming games in California. ACU will be at Sacramento State at 9 p.m. (Abilene time) Saturday night before playing Monday at 7 p.m. at San Francisco. After a break for Christmas, ACU will be back in action on Dec. 29 when it opens Southland Conference play with a 7 p.m. game at New Orleans, and then on Dec. 31 for a 2 p.m. game at Southeastern Louisiana.
