NATCHITOCHES, La. – In all three of their previous Southland Conference victories, the ACU Wildcats were forced to rally from a halftime deficit to pull out a victory, so it should come as no surprise that they were forced to do it again Saturday afternoon at Prather Coliseum.
Trailing 30-28 at halftime against Northwestern State, ACU 13-6 in the first 3:40 of the second half to grab a lead it would never lose en route to a 69-58 win over the Demons. The win – ACU's fourth straight over Northwestern State – pushes ACU to 12-7 overall and 4-2 in the Southland Conference, while the Demons fall to 3-13 and 0-5.
All five ACU starters scored in double figures as those five combined to score 61 of ACU's 69 points in the contest. Sophomore guard
Payten Ricks scored 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half to spark the Wildcats to the victory.
Jaylen Franklin finished with 13 points – his third straight game in double figures – while
Jalone Friday had 12 points,
Jaren Lewis 11 and
Tevin Foster 10.
TURNING POINT
With ACU trailing 36-35 after a Malik Metoyer jumper with 17:09 to play, Ricks buried a 3-pointer on a feed from Friday to give ACU a 38-36 lead with 16:59 left in the game. ACU would not trail again.
One of the game's biggest plays came right after the 3-pointer when Iziaiah Sweeney turned the ball over and Ricks picked if off and brought the ball into the frontcourt. He saved a pass from going out of bounds, found an opening to the 3-point line and buried his second straight 3-pointer to give ACU a 41-36 lead with 16:20 to play.
Northwestern State cut the lead back to 41-38 with 15:39 left when Friday picked up his fourth foul and left the game. But Lewis and
Hayden Farquhar hit back-to-back layups to push the lead back to 45-38 before Sweeney hit a jumper to make it 45-40. But Ricks hit a layup to push the lead back to 47-40 with 14:07 left in the game and that sent ACU on a run that put the Wildcats up 52-42 with 12:31 left. The run was capped by a 3-pointer from Foster.
Northwestern State made one last run, cutting ACU's lead to 56-50 with 5:52 to play before
Drake Green buried a huge 3-pointer from the corner to give ACU a 59-50 lead with 5:32 to play. Farquhar then followed that with a 3-pointer with 4:23 left that provided the dagger, putting ACU up 62-52.
Franklin hit another layup to make it 64-52 before ACU hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 89 seconds to end it.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• The Wildcats swept a Southland Conference road trip with wins over Houston Baptist on Wednesday and the win over Northwestern State for the first time since ACU re-joined the league in 2013-14.
• After shooting just 35.5 percent from the floor in the first half (11 of 31), the Wildcats shot 54.4 percent from the field in the second half (12 of 22).
• The Wildcats turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, but just six times in the second half. ACU forced 21 Northwestern State turnovers and scored 27 points off those turnovers.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Joe Golding on the win …
"I was proud of the way our guys played in the second half and the fight we showed in the final 20 minutes. This was a big win for us to get to 4-2 and set us up for a big game Wednesday night against Stephen F. Austin."
Joe Golding on the play of Payten Ricks …
"Payten was really good (Saturday). We need him, and I've really been on him the last couple of weeks. He's going to be a heckuva player for us, and he was the difference for us (Saturday). We've had different guys step up in each game and (Saturday) it was Payten's turn."
ACU guard Payten Ricks on the road win …
"These wins are hard to come by, so you can't take them for granted. We have a lot of respect for Northwestern State, so to get wins at Houston Baptist and Northwestern State is huge. The key to the two wins is that we believe in each other and we're an extremely tight team."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats are back home Wednesday (Jan. 17) for a huge game against Southland Conference powerhouse Stephen F. Austin. The Wildcats beat the Lumberjacks at home last season, their first win over the league's kingpin since re-joining the league in 2013-14. The game will be broadcast on TV on Eleven Sports, and it can be heard on 98.1 FM.
