CHARLESTON, S.C. – Eleven days after a heartbreaking home loss to Charleston Southern, turnabout was fair play for the ACU Wildcats as they miraculously rallied twice in the final seconds of both regulation and overtime to knock off the Buccaneers, 85-82, at the Buc Dome.
The Wildcats (4-3) rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final 19 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime when
Jovan Crnic drilled a cold-blooded 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left in the second half, and then rallied from six points down in the final 2:36 of overtime to pull out their second non-conference NCAA Division I road win of the season.
On Nov. 22 in ACU's Moody Coliseum, it was the Wildcats who blew a big lead and saw the Buccaneers walk away with a 66-65 win after Armel Potter buried a jumper with four seconds to play to steal the win for CSU. But Saturday afternoon in the Palmetto City, it was the Wildcats who stole one in the craziest of ways.
ACU led 43-35 at halftime after a brilliant first-half performance from sophomore forward
Jaren Lewis (13 points on his way to a career-high 26 points) and the rest of his teammates. That lead would stretch to as much as nine points in the second half before Raemond Robinson brought his team back by scoring 11 of his 17 points in the second half. Robinson was 3 for 4 from 3-point range and helped the Buccaneers take a 72-63 lead with 1:02 to play in regulation.
After ACU cut the lead to 72-69 with 40 seconds to play on a
Jalone Friday 3-pointer, Robinson buried a pair of free throws to make it 74-69. But Lewis hit two free throws with 19 seconds left before Cortez Mitchell missed a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left and Lewis grabbed the defensive rebound, who passed the ball ahead to
Diamante Langston.
The junior point guard drove into the lane with 6.6 seconds left and was fouled by Jarvis Howard, and he made both free throws to cut the CSU lead to 74-71. Charleston Southern's Ugo Mmonu threw the ball away on the ensuing inbounds pass, giving the Wildcats one last chance.
Crnic – who buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer last year at Colorado State to force overtime in Fort Collins, Colo. – did the same thing, hitting a stepback 3-pointer from the right wing with three seconds left to send the game to overtime.
The Wildcats found themselves down 82-76 with 2:36 left in overtime after a Potter 3-pointer. But that's when the Wildcats switched to a box-and-one defense on Potter and he didn't score the rest of the game. Neither did the Buccaneers as they missed their last five shots from the field.
While the Bucs weren't scoring, the Wildcats got a 3-pointer from Friday (career-high 19 points) to cut the lead to 82-79 with 2:13 to play, and then an offensive rebound and layup from Lewis to cut the lead CSU lead to 82-81 with 56 seconds to play. After Robinson missed a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left, Langston came out of the scrum with the ball and got the Wildcats got the ball inside to Lewis, who hit a bank shot with 11 seconds to play to give ACU an 83-82 lead.
After Mitchell missed a jumper,
Drake Green – who finished with five points, four rebounds and two blocks – came up with the defensive rebound and then hit two free throws with three seconds left after he was fouled by Jamar Martin. Potter's 3-pointer at the buzzer was on line, but hit off the back rim and the Wildcats were able to celebrate a big non-conference road win.
Key Stats
• Since starting the season hitting just 44 of 81 free throws in their first four games (54.3 percent), the Wildcats have hit 50 of 63 from the line in their last three games (79.4 percent), including 21 of 26 in Saturday's win.
Notable
• The Wildcats had a 43-35 halftime lead, the sixth time in seven games this season that they've led at halftime. The only time ACU hasn't led at halftime this season was Wednesday night in the 64-55 loss at New Mexico.
• The Wildcats out-rebounded the Buccaneers 15-13 in the first half, but were out-rebounded 20-18 in the second half and overtime, including 9-3 on the offensive glass. Those nine offensive rebounds led to 12 second-chance points in the final 25 minutes for the Buccaneers.
Quotable
"That's one of the best wins I've ever been associated with. Our kids fought their tails off for 45 minutes, and that's the trademark of this team. We fight. We fight for 40 minutes or however long it takes. Tonight it took a rally at the end of regulation and an overtime to get it done, but we kept fighting. That's a credit to our guys and how they go about their business. Jaren Lewis was special (Saturday); he dominated parts of the game for us. Jalone did a lot of good things, but so did every guy that stepped on the floor. Jovan lives for moments like the one he had at the end of regulation. He wants the ball in those situations, and he delivered (Saturday)." –
ACU head coach Joe Golding
Up Next
The Wildcats will be off for Finals week at ACU, but will be back in action next Saturday (Dec. 10) when they host Northern New Mexico at 4 p.m. in a non-conference game in Moody Coliseum.
