ABILENE – After trailing Stephen F. Austin by as many as 12 points in the first half, the ACU Wildcats went to the halftime locker room Wednesday night holding a 43-33 lead and all the momentum.
In the blink of an eye, they didn't have either as the Lumberjacks put on a defensive clinic in the second half to walk out of Moody Coliseum with a 76-66 win over the Wildcats.
The win pushes the Lumberjacks to 16-3 overall and 5-1 in the Southland Conference, while ACU falls to 12-8 and 4-3.
SFA dominated in every phase of the game in the final 20 minutes, charging out of the halftime locker room and almost immediately erased ACU's 10-point advantage, outscoring the Wildcats 10-2 to start the second half. SFA took the lead at 10:28 on a pair of free throws by T.J. Holyfield, and the Lumberjacks wouldn't trail again.
After a dominant final 10 minutes of the first half, the Wildcats never found their offensive rhythm. In fact, after hitting 13 of 21 shots from the field in the first half, ACU managed to make just 6 of 22 shots in the second half. The Wildcats didn't make their first field goal of the second half until
B.J. Maxwell hit a layup with 12:15 left in the game to give ACU a 49-47 lead.
After SFA scored to tie the game, Maxwell scored again to give ACU a 51-49 lead with 11:50 to play. But the Lumberjacks dominated the game from that point on, outscoring ACU 27-15 over the final 11:06 of the contest to pull away for the victory. Leon Gilmore III – who finished with 16 points – scored all 10 of his second-half points in the final run to put the Lumberjacks over the top.
Kevon Harris, who had a game-high 23 points, did all of his damage early in the second half to help SFA get back into the contest. Ivan Canete added 13 points for the Lumberjacks.
The Lumberjacks' second-half defensive effort was stifling as they held ACU to 27.3 percent shooting from the field (6 of 22) and forced 12 turnovers. The nation's best team in creating turnovers, SFA forced 22 on the night and scored 19 points off turnovers.
But the difference in the game – and in particular in the second half – was in three areas:
• SFA out-rebounded ACU 40-29 (22-11 in the second half), and pulled down 18 offensive rebounds, converting them into 18 second-chance points;
• The Lumberjacks took 59 shots from the floor compared to just 43 for the Wildcats;
• And SFA forced ACU into 22 turnovers, the Wildcats' second-highest single-game total of the season behind the 25 they committed in a 67-65 loss at Lipscomb on Dec. 17.
Tevin Foster – who was terrific on the offensive end in the first half as it was his play that keyed ACU's rally from a 27-15 deficit to a halftime lead – finished with a team-high 20 points, while
Jaren Lewis had 13 and
Payten Ricks 11.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• The Wildcats got just seven points from their bench Wednesday night (four points from Maxwell and three from
Drake Green). ACU's bench has only scored 15 combined points the last two games.
• ACU sophomore center
Jalone Friday played a season-high 34 minutes and didn't foul out for the first time in seven Southland games. But he only got off eight shots against the Lumberjacks.
• The Wildcats – who are second in the Southland Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio – had more turnovers than assists Wednesday night (22 turnovers to 15 assists, the eighth time this season that has happened. ACU is 2-6 in those games.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Joe Golding on the loss …
"The most disappointing thing for me was our lack of fight in the second half. That's the first time that's happened this year and I hope it's the last. Our body language in the second half was bad, and we didn't make any plays. The ball stopped moving and the offense got stagnant. That's not on our point guards; that's on our entire group because we've got to move and share the ball. We did that very effectively in the first half, but not at all in the second half."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats are back on the road Saturday to take on Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark. The Bears are 10-10 overall and 4-3 in the Southland after they went on the road Wednesday and blew out league co-leader New Orleans, 81-57, behind 24 points from Jordan Howard and 23 from Mathieu Kamba. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3, and it can be heard on 98.1 FM.
