ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats had to dig deep and find a little something extra in the tank Tuesday night as they battled a solid Campbell team at Moody Coliseum.
ACU was playing just three days after a 77-62 loss at Pepperdine in Malibu, California (on Saturday, Dec. 1), while the Camels had enjoyed a week off since their last game, giving them the chance to rest and prepare in an effort to avenge last year's ACU win in Buies Creek, N.C.
But despite not having the services of normal starter
B.J. Maxwell, seeing senior forward
Jaren Lewis score just two points in the first half and utilizing senior point guard
Jaylen Franklin for just 17 minutes before he fouled out, the Wildcats were able to get back in the win column with a big 83-68 victory over Campbell at Moody Coliseum.
The win was significant for the Wildcats (8-1 on the season), who played Saturday on the West Coast, flew home late Sunday evening and had one day at home to prepare for the Camels. But the Wildcats' depth showed up as junior guard
Trey Lenox — starting in place of the injured Maxwell — scored 11 points, had four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 31 minutes, and freshman point guard
Damien Daniels had two points, but didn't commit a turnover in 26 minutes off the bench, directing the Wildcats' offense down the stretch after Franklin fouled out with 5:58 left in the game and ACU leading 65-53.
But it was the tandem of
Payten Ricks and
Hayden Farquhar that sparked the Wildcats to the victory. Ricks finished the night with 18 points and five rebounds in 37 minutes, but it was his defensive effort on the nation's leading scorer that helped the Wildcats pick up the victory. Campbell senior guard Chris Clemons entered the contest averaging 32.1 points per game, but scored just 26 and had five of the Camels' 22 turnovers. Campbell entered the game in the top 25 in Division I basketball in fewest turnovers (10.9 per game), but the Wildcats put the clamps on the Camels and Clemons in particular.
Ricks came up with seven of the Wildcats' 14 steals to set an ACU Division I-era single-game record, and he hounded Clemons all over the floor. Clemons had 13 of his 26 points after ACU had already taken a commanding 19-point second-half lead.
"Payten played a terrific game," ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "Take away what he did on the offensive end (5 of 9 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range), I thought what he did on the defensive end turned the game in our favor. He made it hard on Clemons — especially in the first half — to even catch the ball, much less get off a good shot.
"Our depth showed up (Tuesday night)," Golding said. "I told Trey (Lenox) before the game to just do what he's been doing. He's found a role on this team and has played it really well. He has a terrific basketball IQ, knows every position and knows how to play the game. He made a huge 3-pointer (as part of an 8-0 run to start the second half) that helped get us off to a good start in the second half and then made his free throws down the stretch (6 of 6) to help close it out."
The Wildcats ended the first half on a 14-6 run to turn a 22-22 tie into a 36-28 lead, a run that was sparked by the hustle of Farquhar, who had all six of his points in the first half, including two on a breakaway dunk. They extended that run to 22-6 early in the second half by outscoring the Camels 8-0 over the first 1:52 of the half on 3-pointers by
Jalone Friday and Lenox and another bucket by Friday. But after calling timeout, Campbell scratched back into the game with a 7-0 run before Ricks buried a corner 3-pointer on an assist from Lenox to push ACU back in front 49-35 with 16:16 left in the game.
ACU's lead eventually reached 19 points (63-44) on a layup by
Jaren Lewis with 8:25 left in the game and the Wildcats seemed ready to blow the Camels out of the gym. But Campbell was resilient, going on a 15-5 run over the next five minutes to trim the ACU lead to 68-59 after a jumper by Ja'Cor Nelson with 3:38 left in the game. But Lewis — who had nine of his 11 points in the second half — responded out of the timeout with a three-point play and Friday hit 1 of 2 free throws on ACU's next possession and the Wildcat lead was back to 13 with 2:44 left in the game. The lead didn't go below 10 the rest of the way and the Wildcats closed it out at the free throw line where they were 8 for 8 in the final 97 seconds, including 6 for 6 by Lenox.
"This game was about toughness," Golding said. "We had back-to-back trips to the West Coast and got in late Sunday night after a tough loss at Pepperdine and had one day at home to get focused and ready to play. Campbell hadn't played in a week and had all of that time to get ready for us and try to steal a win here and we didn't let it happen. I'm extremely proud of how hard our guys played and how our depth showed up for us. We had a lot of guys do great things tonight. Ricks was special. Farquhar changed the game with his energy in the first half. Trey did some really good things, and on down the line.
"We want to be a great team, and I told our guys that great teams don't lose back-to-back games," he said. "They don't make excuses after losses, they just go back to work and figure it out. We did that and came with a huge win."
The Wildcats will be off for a couple of days before returning to the floor Saturday at 10:30 a.m. to take on Schreiner at Moody Coliseum in the annual Christmas Slam contest. That game will precede the women's 1 p.m. home game against Arkansas of the Southeastern Conference.
