ABILENE – Eight ACU Wildcats scored in double figures Thursday night as they cruised to a 112-62 win over Howard Payne in a non-conference game at Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats trailed their oldest rival, 22-17 with a little less than 10 minutes left in the first half, but ripped off a 45-8 run over the last 10:19 of the first half to turn a tight game into a runaway. The win for the Wildcats is their 74
th in 112 games against Howard Payne, the program's oldest rival. ACU and Howard Payne first played in the 1921-22 season, ACU's third season of intercollegiate basketball.
Jaren Lewis scored 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds in just 15 minutes to lead the Wildcats' effort. He was joined in double figures by Jalone Friday (14 points), Isaiah Tripp (14 points), Jaylen Franklin (12 points), B.J. Maxwell (12 points, Tevin Foster (12 points), Hayden Farquhar (12 points), and Hayden Howell (12 points). The Wildcats hit 62.7 percent of their shots from the floor (42 of 67), including 9 of 19 from 3-point range (47.4 percent).
The 112 points for the Wildcats is the most scored by an ACU team since Feb. 22, 2015, when they beat Southwestern Adventist, 124-57.
TURNING POINT
Howard Payne hit 5 of its first 9 3-point shots in the first half and held a 22-17 lead with 10:39 left in the half after a pair of free throws by Timothy Aguero. But the Wildcats then proceeded to rip off a 45-8 run over the final 10:19 of the half to take a 62-30 lead into halftime.
Franklin led the way with 12 points in the run, followed by seven points from both Farquhar and Howell off the bench, five points from both Maxwell and Tripp, four points from Foster, three points from Drake Green and two from Kolton Kohl.
The Wildcats then began the second half on a 14-2 spurt that pushed the lead to 76-32 with 15:57 left in the game. Friday had five points in the run, followed by four from Foster, three from Green and two from Lewis.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Prior to Thursday night's win over the Yellow Jackets, ACU's last 100-point game was Nov. 24, 2015, when it lost a 108-100 double-overtime decision at Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colo.
• Jaren Lewis is 16 of 19 from the floor on the season after hitting 6 of 7 shots from the floor against Howard Payne.
• The Yellow Jackets hit 5 of their first 9 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, but then missed 19 straight 3-pointers before Khyce Randall hit a 3-pointer with 26 seconds to play in the game.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Joe Golding
… general comments
"We spent the last 48 hours after the Arkansas State loss talking about not being average, and we were very average for the first 10 minutes. But after that we were really good. We finally played with some passion and acted like we were trying to earn something instead of having something given to us. We knew the only way they were going to beat us was at the 3-point line and our defense out there wasn't good early. But we got better and we've got to carry that over to our next game against a really good Lipscomb team."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats will host Lipscomb – a 20-win team last season and picked to finish second in the Atlantic Sun Conference this season – Monday (Nov. 20) at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on 98.1 FM and be seen on acusports.com.
