ABILENE – Needing one home win to ensure that Saturday night's regular-season finale at Houston Baptist would give them a shot at the program's first post-season tournament berth in 10 seasons, the ACU Wildcats never figured out Incarnate Word's offense and the Cardinals stalked out of Moody Coliseum with an 89-75 win over the Wildcats that pretty well signaled the end of the Wildcats' season.
The Wildcats needed to win each of their last two games – Wednesday night at home and Saturday night in Houston – to climb above .500 and finish the regular season at 15-14 in order to secure a chance at bid to one of two post-season tournaments: either the CBI or the CIT. But the best the Wildcats can do now is 14-15, making a bid unlikely.
Incarnate Word shot 62 percent in the game – including 65.2 percent in the second half – to run away with its eighth straight win over the Wildcats. The Cardinals were 31 for 50 from the field in the game, including a blistering 15 of 23 in the second half. The Wildcats weren't bad offensively, shooting 50.8 percent from the field (32 of 63), but they couldn't keep pace with one of the top offensive units in the Southland Conference.
ACU trailed by nine at halftime (43-34) and then 50-39 with 15:31 to play before redshirt freshman guard
B.J. Maxwell sparked a 9-0 run by scoring seven points to bring ACU to within 50-48 with 13:41 to play. After UIW stretched its lead back to 59-53, ACU answered again, this time cutting the lead to 61-60 with 9:15 to play after a
Jaren Lewis layup.
But the Cardinals answered with a 9-0 run that effectively put the game on ice. Tyler Singleton buried a jumper out a timeout before Simi Socks hit another jumper for a 65-60 lead. Then Jalin Hart – who led all scorers with 23 points – hit a 3-pointer and an uncontested layup, forcing the Wildcats to call a timeout to try and stop the bleeding.
The Cardinals' lead never dipped below eight points the rest of the way as the Wildcats never found a defensive answer against a team that entered the game playing for nothing but pride.
ACU was led in scoring by
Hayden Howell, who had a career-high 16 points off the bench, while Maxwell had a career-best 13 off the bench.
Hayden Farquhar finished with 12 points for ACU, which is now 13-15 overall and 7-10 in Southland Conference play. The Wildcats played without leading scorer
Jalone Friday for the second time in three games as he tries to recover from a lower leg injury.
Key Stat
• The Wildcats entered the game allowing just 70.5 points per game, which is the fourth-best defensive scoring figure in the league. However, ACU has given up 81 and 89 points in back-to-back games. The 89 points scored by UIW is the most the Wildcats have allowed in a game this season and the eighth time this year they've given up at least 80 points.
Notable
• ACU is now 4-11 on the season in games played on Monday-Thursday (9-4 in games played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday).
• The Wildcats' loss gives them a 9-5 home record in 2016-17.
Up Next
The Wildcats will close out the season Saturday at Sharp Gym in Houston when they take on Houston Baptist at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket.
