Men's Basketball | 2/1/2016 4:18:00 PM
Live Audio / Video l Live StatsABILENE – The ACU Wildcats, one of the best home teams in the Southland Conference, put their home-court advantage to the test Tuesday night when they host Southland Conference co-leader Houston Baptist in a key league tilt at Moody Coliseum.
Tipoff between the Wildcats and Huskies is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be both heard and seen at
acusports.com with The Voice of the Wildcts,
Grant Boone, calling the play by play action.
The Wildcats are 7-2 at home this season and will be hosting a team that has won 10 straight games overall, but is only 4-7 on the road. The Huskies are 14-7 overall and 8-0 in conference play after Saturday's thrilling 70-69 win over Sam Houston State. The Huskies were 9-0 in the month of January and are off to their best start to a season since transitioning back to NCAA Division I affiliation prior to the 2007-08 season.
ACU, meanwhile, is 5-4 in its last nine games and is 3-0 at home in Southland Conference play after Saturday's 80-71 win over Lamar. The Wildcats have knocked off Northwestern State, McNeese State and Lamar at home in conference play. The Wildcats' win last Saturday pushed their record to 9-12 overall and 4-4 in the league, equaling last year's conference win total when they were 4-14.
The Wildcats continue to be led by freshman guard
Jaylen Franklin, who is averaging 15.4 points per game and is shooting 51.1 percent from the field (118 of 231). Franklin scored 27 points Saturday against the Cardinals, the second time this conference season he has scored at least 27 points in a game.
Franklin is among Southland leaders in free throws made (84) and attempted (132), steals (43), scoring (15.4 ppg) and field goal percentage (51.1 percent). He leads conference freshmen in scoring and field goal percentage.
Fellow freshmen
Jaren Lewis is second on the club in scoring at 9.3 ppg, leading four other Wildcats averaging at least 8.1 ppg: Lewis (9.3), senior guard
Parker Wentz (9.3), senior center
Duran Porter (9.0) and
Jovan Crnic (8.1 ppg).
Statistically, HBU is first in the SLC in scoring (79.1 per game) and second in both field goal percentage (.475) and rebounding (39.1 per game).
In SLC play, sophomore Josh Ibarra leads all in field goal percentage (.690), while Odunsi ranks third in scoring (20.3 per game). On the season as a whole, Ibarra sits second in the league from the field (.628), fourth in blocks (1.5 per game) and fifth in rebounding (6.9 per game), while Anthony Odunsi ranks fourth in scoring (16.8 per game) and is tied for seventh at the NCAA Division I level with 139 made free throws.
