Wildcats try to keep hot streak going at McNeese

LAKE CHARLES, La. –  The ACU Wildcats, who have won three of their last four games, will be back on the road Thursday night to take on a desperate McNeese team in a key Southland Conference game at Burton Coliseum.

The Wildcats and Cowboys are set to tip off at 7 p.m., and the game can be heard locally on 102.7 FM The Bear (102thebear.com).

The Wildcats – who two weeks ago knocked off the top two teams in the league in New Orleans and Sam Houston State – lost last Thursday night at Central Arkansas before rebounding for a big 76-72 win Saturday over Northwestern State in Moody Coliseum. That win, combined with a couple of teams losing in front of them, pushed ACU from 11th in the conference standings up to a tie for ninth.

ACU is now 11-13 overall and 5-8 in league play (5-5 in their last 10 conference games) and needs four wins in its last five games to secure only the second winning season in the last 17 seasons of ACU basketball (2007-08 being the other since the 1998-99 campaign). If the Wildcats can get to 15 wins it would also put them in line for a possible berth in either the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) or the  College Insider Tournament (CIT).

But first they've got to get to 15 wins, which means they'll have to do something they haven't been able to do yet this season: win a conference road game. ACU is 2-10 away from home this season, including 0-6 in conference games with losses at New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana, Nicholls, Incarnate Word, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Central Arkansas.

In order to get to at least 15 wins, the Wildcats will have to win, at minimum, two of their last three road games – at McNeese, at Sam Houston State on Feb. 25 and at Houston Baptist in the season finale on March 4 – while beating both UIW and A&M-Corpus Christi in their final two home games. ACU is 9-3 at home this season, including 5-2 in league play.

The Wildcats have been led all season by the trio of redshirt freshman post Jalone Friday, sophomore forward Jaren Lewis and sophomore point guard Jaylen Franklin. Friday is having a monstrous rookie season in the league, averaging 14.0 points per game (tied with Lewis for 12th and best among Southland freshmen), second in 3-point field goal percentage (46.8 percent), fifth in blocks per game (1.4) and eighth in total field goal percentage (.534).

As good as Friday has been from beyond the arc, the 6-9 redshirt from Oklahoma City has been near unstoppable inside the arc as he's shooting 56.8 percent on the season from 2-point range (83 of 146). Lewis is averaging 14.0 ppg and is 10th in the league in rebounding at 6.8 rpg.

Of late, Franklin has played more like the player who won league Freshman of the Year honors last season as he's averaged 14.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game in ACU's last four contests. He's averaging 10.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game and ranks eighth in the league in assists per game.

Despite entering Thursday night's game in 12th place in the league at 4-9 in conference play (7-17 overall), the Cowboys are still vying for a spot in the conference's post-season tournament next month in Katy. Because two teams ahead of the Cowboys in the standings are ineligible for the tournament because of transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I affiliation (ACU and UIW), the Cowboys enter Thursday night's game just two games behind Southeastern Louisiana (6-7 in league play) for the No. 8 seed and final spot in the tournament.

The Cowboys are led by guard Jamaya Burr, who is 19th in the league in scoring at 12.0 ppg and eighth in the league in assists at 3.9 per game. Stephen Ugochukwu is third in the league in rebounding at 8.0 rpg, although the Cowboys give up the most rebounds per game in the league (42.0) and have the worst rebounding differential in the Southland (minus-8.0 margin).