Wildcat back on the floor for big game vs. Lipscomb

ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats will be back on the floor at Moody Coliseum on Monday night to host one of the top mid-major programs in the country in the Bisons of Lipscomb University, renewing a series that's been dormant since 1959.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. The game can be heard on 98.1 FM or viewed on acusports.com.

Monday night's game will be the eighth all-time meeting between the teams, but the first since the Wildcats beat Lipscomb, 84-74, on Dec. 15, 1959, in Abilene. ACU leads the all-time series 5-2 and has won three straight. Monday night's game is the first of two scheduled contests between the two teams this season. ACU will go to Nashville, Tenn., next month for a Dec. 17 contest at Lipscomb.

ACU is 2-1 on the season after a 112-62 win last Thursday night in which eight players scored in double figures, led by 15 points and eight rebounds from Jaren Lewis. The junior forward from Orlando, Fla., is off to a phenomenal start, having made 16 of 19 shots from the floor (84.2 percent) and 13 of 17 from the free throw line (76.5 percent) through three games. He's averaging 15.7 points (second on the team) and a team-best 7.7 rebounds per game.

Sophomore center Jalone Friday leads the team in scoring at 16.0 ppg and is second in rebounding at 6.3 boards per contest. Graduate transfer guard Tevin Foster is third on the team in scoring at 14.3 ppg, while junior guard Jaylen Franklin is averaging 13.3 ppg and has 17 assists in three games.

The Wildcats are shooting 55.9 percent from the field (99 of 177), but just 30.8 percent from 3-point range (16 for 52). As a team, ACU is shooting a sizzling hot 66.4 percent (83 of 125) inside the 3-point arc.

They're only allowing opponents to shoot 40.7 percent from the floor (70 of 172) and 31.9 percent from 3-point range (23 of 72).

Lipscomb — like ACU, a university affiliated with the Church of Christ — is 2-2 on the season after back-to-back road losses to No. 25 Alabama (86-64 on Nov. 14) and Texas (80-57 on Saturday).

The Bisons, however, feature one of the top mid-major players in the country in junior guard Garrison Mathews, who is on the Lou Henson Award Watch List, an award that goes to the top Mid-Major player in the country at the end of the season. Mathews has lived up to the billing early on, averaging 23.5 ppg, while shooting 45.5 percent from the floor (25 of 55), including 43.5 percent from 3-point range (10 of 23).

Rob Marberry is averaging 13.8 ppg and a team-high 8.5 rpg for the Bisons, who are shooting just 24.7 percent from 3-point range (24 of 97) and 37.4 percent overall (92 of 246).