BUIES CREEK, N.C. – The ACU Wildcats closed out their run in the Creek Classic on Sunday with a big 88-83 win over Bowling Green at Gore Arena, a victory that gave the Wildcats the tournament championship.
The Wildcats finished the classic with a 2-1 record with wins over Campbell and Bowling Green sandwiched around Saturday's 88-78 loss to South Carolina-Upstate. The Wildcats are now 4-3 overall, while the Falcons fall to 5-2 on the year.
Four players finished in double figures, led by sophomore center Jalone Friday, who had 20 points against the team he originally signed with after completing his final year of prep eligibility. Junior forward Jaren Lewis – the tournament MVP – had 17 points and seven rebounds, while junior point guard Jaylen Franklin had 15 points, six rebounds and six assists. Graduate transfer guard Tevin Foster had 11 points and three assists in the victory.
Franklin was also named to the all-tournament team, along with Lewis. In three games, Lewis averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, while hitting 21 of 35 shots from the floor (60.0 percent). Franklin, meanwhile, averaged 10.3 points, 4.0 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game in the tournament.
ACU's offense – which was on the mark all weekend as the Wildcats averaged 83.7 points per game – was efficient once again Sunday as the Wildcats hit 53.1 percent of their shots from the field (34 of 64), including 37.5 percent from 3-point range (6 of 16). The Wildcats were particularly effective inside the arc as they hit 28 of 48 shots from two-point range (58.3 percent).
The Wildcats outscored the Falcons, 48-34, in the paint and the bench outscored Bowling Green's bench, 25-17.
TURNING POINT
ACU led by as many as 10 points a couple of times in the contest before Bowling Green rallied to eventually take its biggest lead of the game – 70-67 – on a pair of Justin Turner free throws with 7:26 to play.
The Wildcats, however, responded with a 14-5 run over the next four-plus minutes to move back in front 81-75 with 2:19 to play. Lewis had five points in the run, while Friday added four and Franklin three. Sophomore guard B.J. Maxwell capped the run with a baseline drive and thunder dunk to put ACU up by six points.
Bowling Green would cut ACU's advantage to two points with 34 seconds to play after a layup by Rodrick Caldwell before Isaiah Tripp fed Friday for a dunk and an 84-80 lead with 28 seconds to play. Caldwell, however, answered with a 3-pointer to make it 84-83 with 23 seconds to play.
With 16 seconds left, Foster got caught on the sideline and was fouled by Nelly Cummings as he tried to poke the ball away from the ACU guard. Foster buried both free throws, and after Caldwell missed a layup with eight seconds left, Maxwell was fouled and hit two free throws to put the game away.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Before he made 3 of 4 free throw attempts Sunday vs. Bowling Green – including the two with six seconds left to seal the win – B.J. Maxwell had only been to the line four times (with two makes) in his ACU career.
• After going 11 for 18 from the free throw line in last Monday's 75-67 loss to Lipscomb, the Wildcats got it back together at the line, hitting 41 of 46 free throw attempts over the weekend. ACU was 11 for 11 vs. Campbell, 16 for 17 vs. USC-Upstate and 14 for 18 vs. Bowling Green.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats will be off for most of this week and won't play again until Saturday (Dec. 2) when they host Schreiner in a non-conference game at 4 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
