CAPE GIRARDEAU, Missouri —
Jalone Friday and
Payten Ricks each scored 13 second-half points Friday night as the ACU Wildcats bounced back from last Saturday's loss at No. 11 Texas Tech with a 70-68 win over Southeast Missouri State at the Show Me Center.
The victory pushes ACU to 10-2 on the season as the Wildcats picked up their third true road win of the season with the win at SEMO joining wins at Denver and at Pacific. The Wildcats are 5-2 away from Moody Coliseum with two neutral-site wins over Elon (N.C.) and UC-Riverside helping push ACU into double digits in the win column before the Christmas break.
ACU's only two losses of the season have come at Pepperdine (Dec. 1) and at Texas Tech (Dec. 15), and each time the Wildcats have answered the loss with a win over a Division I opponent. Friday night's victory over SEMO of the Ohio Valley Conference came courtesy of four players in double figures, clutch plays down the stretch on both ends of the floor and 23 turnovers by the Redhawks.
Senior forward
Jaren Lewis led all scorers with 19 points, followed by Friday with 17, Ricks with 15 and
Jaylen Franklin with 12. Trailing 31-30 at the half, the Wildcats made a concerted effort to get the ball inside to Friday, who responded with six early second-half points, helping his team regain the lead and some degree of control of the contest.
ACU pushed out to a 49-44 lead — its biggest of the night at the time — before SEMO rallied to tie the game 49-49 with 9:52 to play. The teams went back and forth before SEMO grabbed a 56-55 lead on a dunk by Ledarrius Brewer with 6:04 to play. But in a game that saw 21 lead changes and 10 ties, the Wildcats took the lead for good on their next possession when Ricks hit a circus layup and was fouled with 5:25 left in the game. He buried the free throw to give his team a 58-56 and the Wildcats wouldn't trail again.
The Wildcats built the lead to as much as seven points on three occasions in the final 79 seconds before closing out the win. ACU's lead was down to one point with 5:22 to play before Lewis hit a layup and Ricks a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 63-57 lead with 3:16 to play.
That was ACU's final field of the game, but the Wildcats were 7 of 12 at the free throw line in the final 2:03, including 6 of 8 in the final 79 seconds. SEMO — which hit 11 3-pointers — buried a couple of long-range heaves in the final 13 seconds to make the final a two-point margin.
ACU is off until Saturday (Dec. 29) when it closes out the non-conference portion with a 1 p.m. home contest against McMurry. ACU and McMurry haven't played since Dec. 6, 1974.
