ABILENE – One of the things ACU basketball coach
Joe Golding has harped on with his team this season is bouncing back after losses. The constant reminders have worked as the Wildcats have lost consecutive games only once all season.
Wednesday night at Moody Coliseum the Wildcats showed more of their resiliency as they rallied from an early nine-point deficit on their way to a 74-69 win over Lamar in a big Southland Conference contest for both teams. The win pushes ACU to 14-9 overall and 6-4 in the league, while the Cardinals fall to 13-10 and 5-5.
The win marked a nice bounce back effort for the Wildcats, who lost at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Wednesday and had to sit on that loss for a week as they enjoyed their first bye of the conference schedule last Saturday. And with a Corpus Christi road win at Southeastern Louisiana, the Wildcats moved into sixth place in the league standings at 6-4, just two games out of first place (New Orleans at 9-2) in the loss column.
It wasn't easy, however, as both ACU and Lamar – who entered the game tied for seventh in the league – traded punches throughout the contest. Lamar jumped out to a 28-19 first-half lead, only to see ACU end the first half on a big run to take a 36-32 lead into the break.
The Wildcats pushed out to a nine-point advantage a couple of times in the second half, but couldn't quite put away the Cardinals, who were picked to finish second in the league in the preseason poll. ACU led 63-54 with 3:16 left in the game after
Jalone Friday – who led all players with 24 points – hit a pair of free throws.
But Lamar wouldn't go away.
James Harrison buried a 3-pointer and then Josh Nzeakor hit a pair of free throws to cut the ACU lead to 63-59 with 2:23 to play. Both teams traded missed shots and turnovers before
Tevin Foster – who had 12 points and nine assists – found
Jaren Lewis for a huge layup in traffic to push the ACU lead back to 65-59 with 1:15 left in the contest.
After two Nick Garth free throws cut ACU's lead to 65-61 with 46 seconds left, the Wildcats began their parade to the free throw line. After hitting just 5 of their first 11 free throws, ACU hit 9 of their last 10 in the final 43 seconds with Foster hitting 5 of 6 and Lewis making 4 of 4.
Foster hit two with 43 seconds left before Torey Noel hit two for Lamar to make it a 67-63 ACU lead with 33 seconds left. Lewis then hit two for ACU with 30.5 seconds left and the Wildcats had a two-possession lead.
That quickly shrank to a one-possession lead when Bosha hit another 3-pointer – Lamar's 10
th of the game – to cut the ACU lead to 69-66 with 18 seconds to play. But After Foster made the second of two free throws with 15 seconds left, Nzeakor converted a three-point play with eight seconds left to cut the Wildcats' lead to 70-69.
Foster then buried two huge free throws immediately after that to give ACU a 72-69 lead, leading Golding to call a timeout to discuss strategy. ACU chose to foul in the backcourt, and Foster's foul on Joey Frenchwood sent the 75 percent free throw shooter to the line to either try and make both or make the first and miss the second intentionally in the hopes of giving his team a chance at the offensive rebound and either a game-tying or game-winning shot.
But none of that happened as Frenchwood missed both free throws with Lewis grabbing the rebound of the second miss and absorbing a foul. He made both of his free throws with 3.22 seconds to play and the Wildcats walked away with the win.
Friday led all scorers with 24 points and 10 rebounds by going 9 of 14 from the field (3 of 5 from 3-point range), while Foster and Lewis each had 12 points. Franklin had 10 points and five assists for the Wildcats.
TURNING POINT
ACU trailed Lamar 28-19 with 5:20 left in the first half before completely flipping the game. The Wildcats closed the first half with a 17-4 run over the final 5:05 to take a 36-32 lead into halftime.
Fridasy had 10 points in the run, while
Hayden Farquhar had three and Foster and Franklin two points apiece for the Wildcats in the half-ending run. Friday tied the game at 28-28 with 3:44 left in the first half with a 3-pointer before James Harrison answered with a 3-pointer to give the lead back to Lamar.
Friday then hit a jumper and later added a free throw to tie the game at 31-31 with two minutes left in the half. After Zjori Bosha hit the first of two free throws with 1:45 left in the half, the Cardinals would have their last lead of the night at 32-31.
Hayden Farquhar, though, would answer with a go-ahead 3-pointer to make it a 34-32 lead with 1:28 left in the half.
Jaylen Franklin hit a short jumper in the lane with 44 seconds left in the half to give ACU a 36-32 advantage. Late in the half, Lamar's leading scorer, Colton Weisbrod, stole the ball from
Drake Green and tried to the drive the length of the floor to get a late bucket and cut the ACU lead to two points.
But Friday stepped in and took a charge on Weisbrod and the Wildcats went to the half with a four-point lead. ACU would never trail in the second half as the Wildcats won their fourth straight over the Cardinals.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• The Wildcats' 14
th win of the season is the most they've ever won under head coach
Joe Golding, and are also the most for an ACU men's basketball team since the 2007-08 team – for which Golding as the assistant coach – went 20-9.
• Senior guard
Drake Green hit 2 of 4 3-pointers to give him 75 career 3-pointers, leaving him in 17
th place in ACU history in terms of made 3-pointers. He trails Dante Adams (78 3-pointers from 2007-09) on the list.
• The Wildcats had allowed just 138 3-pointers in their first 21 games of the season (6.6 per game), but have allowed 10 3-pointers to both Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Lamar in their last two games.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Joe Golding on the win …
"Those were two good teams battling out there (Wednesday night). Both of us knew how big this one was in terms of positioning for the conference tournament, and both teams played like it. I liked the way our guys fought and showed some toughness."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats are back on the road Saturday when they go to Huntsville to take on Sam Houston State at Johnson Coliseum in a game that can be seen on ESPN3 and heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket. The game is set for a 6:15 p.m. tipoff, following the 3 p.m. women's game between ACU and Sam Houston State.
