HUNTSVILLE – The ACU Wildcats went into Saturday night's game against Sam Houston State knowing they had zero room for error if they wanted their season to extend past next Saturday's regular-season finale.
But the Wildcats certainly didn't play like a team on the brink.
Instead, they dominated Southland Conference pre-season favorite from the start, built as much as a 13-point lead, and then withstood a barrage of late-game 3-pointers to stun the Bearkats, 84-81, in front of 1,578 fans at Johnson Coliseum. The road victory goes down as the biggest in ACU's four-year transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I affiliation and, arguably, the biggest of head coach
Joe Golding's career.
The Wildcats entered the final three games of the season knowing they had to sweep Sam Houston State, Incarnate Word and Houston Baptist in order to finish 15-14 overall (9-9 in the league) and put themselves in position to earn a berth in either the CBI or CIT invitational tournaments. ACU is in its final year of transition and is ineligible for the Southland Conference Post-Season Tournament in Katy.
Saturday night's win was only their second road conference win of the season, but it came at a great time as the Wildcats improved to 13-14 overall and 7-9 in the league, moving into a tie for eighth place in the league standings. Sam Houston State, meanwhile, is now 18-11 and 9-7 after losing for the fifth time in its last six games. Two of those five losses are to the Wildcats, who are a combined 3-0 against Sam Houston State (2-0) and Stephen F. Austin (1-0), the two teams that have dominated the league over the last few seasons.
The last few minutes of Saturday night's game weren't easy, though, as the Wildcats – who built their lead to as many as 13 points (55-42) on a 3-pointer by
Drake Green with 11:46 to play – had to withstand a furious Sam Houston State rally in the final minutes.
ACU led by 10 points (59-49) after sophomore forward
Hayden Howell – who was huge off the bench with nine points and three rebounds – collected an offensive rebound, put it back in and hit a free throw to push the lead back to double digits with 9:17 left. But the Bearkats went on a 9-4 over the next five minutes to cut ACU's lead to 63-58.
Shortly after that, Green buried a clutch 3-pointer from the win to put ACU back up by eight points (66-58) with 3:53 to play. With the lead down to 66-60, Howell again grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled. This time he canned two free throws to push the lead back to 68-60 with 2:55 left.
Jaren Lewis and
Jaylen Franklin then hit back-to-back buckets for ACU to keep the lead at 73-66 with 1:12 to play before ACU began its parade to the free throw line. Franklin dropped in two free throws with 56 seconds left to push the lead to 75-66 before John Dewey III made two for Sam Houston to cut the ACU lead to 75-68 with 48 seconds left.
Freshman guard
Payten Ricks was fouled and hit 1 of 2 at the line before Dakar Henderson buried a 3-pointer with 39 seconds to play to cut ACU's lead to 76-71.
Isaiah Tripp – one of the top free throw shooters in the league – hit 1 of 2 free throws with 31 seconds left before Albert Almanza hit another 3-pointer to cut ACU's lead to 77-74 with 26 seconds left.
Tripp was fouled again on the inbounds pass and again hit 1 of 2 free throws to increase ACU's lead to 78-74 with 23 seconds to play. Josh Delany then hit a layup before Tripp was fouled again with 14 seconds to play. He made both free throws to make it an 80-76 ACU lead.
Dewey then buried another deep 3-pointer to cut ACU's lead to 80-79 with 7.0 seconds to play. Tripp was fouled again and went back to the line where he buried both free throws for an 82-79 lead. Tripp then fouled Dewey before he could get a shot off and he went to the free throw line with 5.0 seconds to play and made both charity shots to cut ACU's lead to 82-81.
Before the second free throw, ACU redshirt freshman center
Jalone Friday – who started the game after missing last Wednesday's loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with a lower leg injury, but only played the first 90 seconds before leaving in pain – checked into the game for the Wildcats. He was fouled before the inbounds was thrown in, but Friday – one of the top free throw shooters in the league – buried both free throws for the final points of the night.
Dewey had a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer, but it was off the mark and the Wildcats walked out of Johnson Coliseum with their fifth win in their last seven games.
Key Stat
• The Wildcats entered the game 12th in the Southland Conference in free throw shooting at 65.7 percent, but hit 23 of 28 from the line (82.1 percent) in the win.
Notable
• The Wildcats beat the league's pre-season favorite twice this season with their leading scorer (Friday) scoring two points in each game. All four of his points against the Bearkats this season came from the free throw line. However, his two free throws with 5.0 seconds left Saturday night sealed the win.
• In their first conference road win of the season (Feb. 16 at McNeese), sophomore
Hayden Farquhar had four 3-pointers and 16 points. Saturday night he was 3 for 3 rom the 3-point line with nine points in the first half.
• Sophomore forward
Jaren Lewis scored in double figures for the 23rd time in 27 games this season and for the 38th time in 58 career games.
Quotable
"Sam Houston State is an extremely tough team, and I have a ton of respect for (head coach) Jason Hooten and their program. It took everything we had to win this ballgame. I'm just extremely proud of my guys and this team. We had a tough loss Wednesday night (at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), but our guys got re-focused and came down here to win this team. They wanted it tonight, and you could tell it from the start of the game. Hayden (Howell) played great off the bench, and he did it with the flu. Jalone (Friday) tried to go with his injury, but couldn't do it. Then he comes back in and hits those two free throws with five seconds left. (Hayden) Farquhar and Jaren (Lewis) were special, and so was Jaylen (Franklin). And then (Isaiah) Tripp was huge at the free throw line late in the game. It took the entire group tonight to get this one, and I couldn't be more proud of this team." — ACU head coach Joe Golding
Up Next
The Wildcats will play their final home game of the season Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. when they host Incarnate Word in Moody Coliseum. ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert has agreed to dye his hair purple if at least 2,000 fans show up for the men's and women's doubleheader against UIW.
