BUIES CREEK, N.C. – The ACU Wildcats had little trouble scoring Saturday afternoon against the zone defense of South Carolina-Upstate, but it was their own defense that the Spartans broke repeatedly in an 88-78 Upstate win on the second day of the Creek Classic at Gore Arena on the campus of Campbell University.
The Spartans entered the game having made at least nine 3-pointers in each of their first games, including making 14 on two separate occasions, and it was that long-range shooting that did in the Wildcats. Upstate was 13 of 29 from distance, while also hitting 16 of 25 shots inside the arc as they hit 53.7 percent of their shots from the field.
Upstate also missed just one free throw (17 of 18 at the line) in a near-flawless offensive performance.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, never could get control of the game after getting out to a slow start and never really recovering. ACU only led twice – 3-0 and 43-42 – en route to falling to 3-3 on the season after beating Campbell in overtime in Friday's opening-round game.
ACU's own offense wasn't bad as the Wildcats shot 47 percent from the field (27 of 58), including 34.8 percent from 3-point range (8 of 23). But it wasn't enough as Upstate seemingly won every 50-50 ball and out-rebounded the Wildcats, 29-28, despite being out-rebounded by an average of 42-35 in each of its first six games.
TURNING POINT
ACU trailed 42-37 at halftime, but opened the second half on a 6-0 run to move in front, 43-42. Hayden Howell scored the first four points of the half, followed by a Jaren Lewis layup that gave ACU a 43-42 lead with 18:07 left in the contest.
But Upstate responded immediately, going on a 7-0 run to regain control of the contest and go back on top 49-43. Mike Cunningham put Upstate back in front, followed by a Ramel Thompkins jumper and a three-point play by Isaiah Anderson to give the Spartans a 49-43 lad with 16:31 to play.
After a Jaylen Franklin layup cut the lead to four points, Anderson and Cunningham hit back-to-back layups to push the lead to 53-45 with 14:09 to play before ACU called a timeout. Out of the timeout, Franklin hit a layup to make it a 53-47 Upstate lead before Malik Moore hit a jumper and then Thompkins hit three free throws after he was fouled on a 3-point attempt.
Deion Holmes then buried a 3-pointer with 12:12 to play to put Upstate up, 61-47, and that was the ballgame. ACU got to within nine points a couple of times late in the contest, but could get no closer as the Spartans held on for the win.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• The Wildcats missed eight layups in the contest.
• ACU is 27 for 28 at the free throw line in the two games in North Carolina.
• ACU's top two scorers – Tevin Foster and Jalone Friday – were a combined 3 for 20 in the game with Foster hitting just 2 of 12 shots, while Friday was 1 for 8.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Joe Golding
… on his team's defensive play
"We scored 78 points, so I don't think our offense was the problem (Saturday). But we were terrible defensively. We didn't guard the ball at all and gave them pretty much whatever they wanted. We just didn't get stops when we needed them, and that was the difference in the ballgame."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats will be back in action Sunday afternoon (12 p.m. Abilene time) against Bowling Green. The Falcons are 2-0 in the tournament after wins over USC-Upstate on Friday and Campbell on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on 98.1 FM The Ticket.
