ABILENE – Central Arkansas guards Jordan Howard and Mathieu Kamba each scored 28 points apiece Thursday night and the ACU Wildcats hit just 7 of 20 free throw attempts as the Bears escaped Moody Coliseum with an 81-76 Southland Conference win over ACU.
The Wildcats' fifth straight loss drops them to 6-8 overall and 0-3 in the league, while the Bears improve to 3-13 and 2-1. ACU will be back in action Saturday at 4:30 p.m. when it hosts four-time defending league champion Stephen F. Austin in a game that will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.
ACU – which allowed Central Arkansas to shoot 59.3 percent in the first half and trailed 42-37 at the break – trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half (55-43) with 13:47 to play after a pair of free throws by Howard. But back-to-back 3-pointers from
Isaiah Tripp and
Jaylen Franklin in front of a layup by Tripp cut the lead to 55-51 with 11:55 to play.
The Bears would push their lead back to 62-55 with 8:08 to play on a Howard layup before
Hayden Howell hit a short jumper in the lane and
Payten Ricks buried a 3-pointer to make it 62-60 with 7:05 to play. ACU got a defensive stop on UCA's next possession, but
Drake Green's 3-pointer from the corner went halfway down and popped out and Kamba hit a free throw on the other end to extend UCA's lead to 63-60 with 6:12 to play.
Green had another 3-pointer to tie the game on ACU's ensuing possession that came up short, and UCA made the Wildcats pay when Derreck Brooks hit a 3-pointer on the other end to push the lead back to 66-60 with 5:29 left. The Bears were able to push the lead back to 10 points before ACU cut the lead to 79-76 with 10 seconds left on a Franklin 3-pointer. But Jeff Lowery hit a pair of free throws with eight seconds left and that was the ballgame.
Jalone Friday had a double-double to lead the Wildcats, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, while Tripp played one of the best games of his ACU career to finish with 16 points. Franklin had 12 and
Jaren Lewis 11 for ACU.
Key Stats
• Central Arkansas entered Thursday night's game shooting just .411 from the field on the season – including just 34.6 percent from 3-point range (88 of 254) – but blistered the ACU defense in the first half by shooting 59.3 percent from the field (16 of 27), including 7 of 15 from 3-point range (46.7 percent).
• The Bears' 59.3 percent shooting performance in the first half was tied for their best half of shooting all season (59.3 percent in the first half of an 87-63 road loss at Southeast Missouri on Dec. 1).
Notable
• ACU was out-rebounded 16-10 in the first half and the teams combined to record one offensive rebound in the opening 20 minutes, that coming by UCA's Tanner Schmit.
Quotable
"Our guys constantly work on free throws, but we have to make them in games We let Howard get comfortable early in the game and get into a flow and that eventually cost us. He's one of the best players in the league and a really tough guard, but we gambled on a couple of things early and it came back to bite us. At the end of the day, we have to keep grinding and trust the process. We're in a rut and we have to find a way to get out of it and get a win." –
ACU head coach Joe Golding
Up Next
The Wildcats will be back in action Saturday at home when they host four-time defending Southland Conference champion Stephen F. Austin at 4:30 p.m. in Moody Coliseum. The game can be heard on 98.1 FM and seen on ESPN3. David Saltzman (play by play) and Jim Haller (analyst) will provide commentary on the ESPN broadcast.
