Wildcats set to welcome old rival Sam Houston State

ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats begin the home portion of their Southland Conference schedule tonight against old rival Sam Houston State. The Wildcats are looking to bounce back from Thursday night's disappointing 77-74 loss at defending champion New Orleans, while the Bearkats are beginning league play tonight at Moody Coliseum.ACU swept the Bearkats

last season, the first time the Wildcats had swept them in the same season since the 1926-27 campaign when both games were played in Abilene. Prior ro last season, ACU had never swept a home-and-home series fro the Bearkats in a series that dates back to the 1923-24 season.

In Thursday night's loss at New Orleans, graduate transfer guard Tevin Foster poured in a career-best 25 points and gave his team a one point lead with less than 30 seconds left after a personal 7-0 run to get ACU back into the game.

However, New Orleans would regain the lead on a pair of free throws and then seal it with a dunk off a defensive rebound.

Opponent free throw shooting has been a theme for the Wildcats in the last two weeks because in three of their last four games – all three on the road – the Wildcats are 34 of 43 from the free throw line while their opponents are a staggering 74 of 108. Thursday night, the Wildcats were a very respectable 18 of 25 from the line, but were outscored from the strip by 15 points as the Privateers hit 33 of 37 free throws as ACU was whistled for 31 fouls to just 21 for UNO.

ACU is second in the league in both field goal percentage (48.8 percent) and free throw percentage (72.3 percent), but is also fourth in field goal percentage defense (allowing opponents to hit ust 43.8 percent of their shots) and fifth in scoring defense (allowing just 70.4 ppg).

Sophomore center Jalone Friday is ninth in the league in scoring at 14.5 ppg, followed by junior forward Jaren Lewis in 6th at 13.3 ppg and Foster in 17th at 12.6 ppg.