Men's Basketball | 2/26/2016 12:12:00 AM
Live Audio l Live Video l Live StatsABILENE – The ACU Wildcats begin a season-ending three-game homestand Saturday afternoon when they host the Privateers of the University of New Orleans at Moody Coliseum for the first time.
The Wildcats and Privateers have met twice in history with UNO taking each game, both of which were played in New Orleans. Saturday's game is set for 4 p.m. or 30 minutes after the end of the 2 p.m. women's game (whichever comes first) and can be seen and heard on acusports.com with The Voice of the Wildcats
Grant Boone calling the play-by-play action.
ACU enters the contest coming off a spirited 65-59 loss at second-place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Wildcats are 12-16 overall and 7-8 in the Southland Conference and in sixth place in the league. UNO, meanwhile, enters the game at 9-16 overall and in ninth place in the league at 5-9.
With three teams ahead of it ineligible for the conference's post-season tournament (ACU and Incarnate Word because both are in transition to NCAA Division I and Central Arkansas because of APR penalties), the Privateers are playing for a better seed in the tournament, which begins in two weeks in Katy.
The Wildcats will finish off the 2015-16 season with three straight home games as they host New Orleans, Incarnate Word (Thursday, March 3) and A&M-Corpus Christi (Saturday, March 5).
With one more win, the Wildcats would double their number of conference wins for the second straight season (from two in 2013-14 to four in 2014-15 and, possibly, to eight in 2015-16), and with two more wins they would finish .500 in conference play for the first time since going 6-6 in Lone Star Conference play in 2007-08. With wins in all three games, the Wildcats will finish above .500 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 team finished 9-5 in LSC action.
The Wildcats continue to be led by leading Southland Conference Freshman of the Year candidate
Jaylen Franklin, who is among the league leaders in scoring (15.8 ppg), field goal percentage (50.3 percent) and steals (49). He has scored 15 points in each of the Wildcats' last three games.
Senior guard
Parker Wentz broke the school record for games played Tuesday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi by appearing in his 116
th career contest. He should finish with 119 career games played barring unforeseen circumstances.
UNO is led by Christavious Gill, who is averaging 13.8 ppg, while Erik Thomas is averaging 11.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest. The Privateers are shooting just 41.3 percent as a team and their defense is allowing 77.1 points per game. UNO has lost four of its last five games entering Saturday's game with the only win coming in a 102-99 decision over Northwestern State last Saturday.
