Wildcats host Southland's measuring stick in SFA

Wear White and Go Wildcats!

ABILENE – ACU head basketball coach Joe Golding likens each of the 18 games in Southland Conference to a round in a fight. If that's the case, the Wildcats are ahead on points through six rounds with a huge seventh round coming up Wednesday night at Moody Coliseum.

That's when the Wildcats (12-7 overall and 4-2 in league play) will host perennial league powerhouse Stephen F. Austin (15-3 and 4-1) at 7 p.m. in the biggest game on the league's Wednesday schedule. The game will be broadcast to a national TV audience on Eleven Sports with Jared Sandler (play by play) and Chris McColpin (analysis) handling the call.

The game will be available in Abilene on Suddenlink channel 455 and nationally on DirecTV  (channel 623), AT&T U-verse (channel 1665), and Verizon FiOS (channel 597). The game can also be seen online at southland.org/live or on the Southland Conference app (iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku). The contest will also be available on 98.1 FM The Ticket with Voice of the Wildcats Grant Boone and former McMurry University head coach Ron Holmes on the call.

However, Golding doesn't want ACU fans – or Abilene basketball fans in general – sitting at home watching the game on TV. He wants Moody full for one of the program's biggest home games in recent memory. All fans are asked to wear white shirts to Wednesday night's game in support of the Wildcats.

Perhaps the only game in the last 10 years that can match the importance of Wednesday night's game is the Jan. 29, 2008, game between No. 17 Tarleton State and No. 19 ACU when the Texans walked out of Moody with an 86-85 win. But that was a game between two teams at the NCAA Division II level. Wednesday night's game is a contest between two teams who are battling for a spot in the Southland Conference post-season tournament and, eventually, a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

"If we want our program to be where Stephen F. Austin's is in this league and nationally, we have to protect our home floor," Golding said. "And to be able to do that, we have to make it an extremely difficult place to play. We've seen more people in the arena this season, but the noise level isn't what it needs to be for 40 minutes. We need to people to show up, be loud for 40 minutes and make Moody Coliseum an extremely difficult place to play. And that needs to start Wednesday night."

The Wildcats have won four of their last five games to move to within one-half game of second place in the league and one full game of first place. ACU's 12 wins so far this season are equal to or more than the Wildcats have won in 18 of the program's last 19 seasons. And last week the Wildcats won on the road at Houston Baptist (Wednesday) and Northwestern State (Saturday) to complete a conference road sweep for the first time since re-joining the Southland Conference prior to the 2013-14 season.

ACU has four players averaging in double figures on the season, led by sophomore center Jalone Friday, who is averaging 13.7 points per game, followed by junior forward Jaren Lewis (13.4 ppg and team-best 6.4 rebounds per game), graduate transfer guard Tevin Foster (12.4 ppg), and junior point guard Jaylen Franklin (10.0 ppg).

Friday is 12th in the league in scoring, while Lewis is 14th and Foster 21st. Lewis leads the league in field goal percentage (61.6 percent) and is 11th in the league in rebounding (6.4 rpg). Franklin is fourth in the league in field goal percentage (56.9 percent) and fourth in the league in assists (4.8 per game).

After starting 4-1, the Lumberjacks have followed up a narrow loss at Mississippi State by reeling off an 11-2 streak that includes wins at Louisiana Tech and LSU sandwiched around a home win over Rice. Their only losses in that stretch are a one-point loss at Missouri and an 11-point loss at Southeastern Louisiana in their Southland Conference-opener on Dec. 28.

Since that loss to Southeastern, however, the Lumberjacks have won four straight by an average of 13.8 points per game, including last Saturday's 83-63 home win over Incarnate Word.

Sophomore swing man Kevon Harris is third in the league in scoring at 16.7 ppg, while junior forward TJ Holyfield is at eighth at 14.9 ppg and junior guard Shannon Bogues is 11th at 13.8 ppg. Holyfield is third in the league in field goal percentage (57.4 percent) and eighth in the league in rebounding (6.6 rpg).

After Wednesday's game, the Wildcats will be back on the road Saturday to take on Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark., in a 3 p.m. game that will be broadcast on ESPN3.