ABILENE – All the ACU Wildcats wanted on Christmas Slam Saturday at Moody Coliseum was a dominating 40 minutes of basketball, no injuries and a good feeling going into a week of finals in the classroom and preparations on the floor for next Saturday's game against nationally ranked Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Santa Claus delivered on each of those wishes as the Wildcats got every available player into Saturday's game against Schreiner in a 93-53 win over the Mountaineers. And despite 18 turnovers that didn't make head coach
Joe Golding very happy, the Wildcats will have a couple of days off to get ready for the final week of the fall semester and then plenty of time to get some work done in anticipation of next Saturday night's Throwback Game at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum.
Schreiner scored the first basket of the game and stayed close throughout much of the first half before ACU sprinted to a 13-5 run over the final 4:12 of the half to turn a six-point lead into a 43-29 halftime advantage. Just like he did last Tuesday in a home win over Campbell, senior forward
Hayden Farquhar sparked the Wildcats off the bench as he had a team-high eight points, five rebounds and two blocks at the break.
ACU then started the second half on a 17-9 run that gave them a 22-point lead (60-38) with 13:08 left in the game. The run was sparked by junior center
Jalone Friday, who had seven of his game-high 21 points in the spurt and was capped by Farquhar, who buried a corner 3-pointer to give ACU a 22-point cushion. That was the first of three straight baskets for Farquhar, who had 15 points off the bench.
The Wildcats took a 70-41 lead over the Mountaineers with 8:56 to play when
Payten Ricks — who had nine points, all on 3-pointers — found
Jaylen Franklin for a fast-break alley-oop dunk that brought the house down. ACU took its first 30-point lead (74-44) on the first of two Friday free throws with 7:54 left and then took its largest lead of the game (40 points) with 42 seconds left when
Kolton Kohl hit a jumper to give ACU a 93-53 lead.
Aside from Friday and Farquhar, senior forward
Jaren Lewis was the only other Wildcat to finish in double figures in scoring as he had 12 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals in only 16 minutes as Golding tried to preserve his leading scorer. Franklin — who leads the Southland conference in assists, assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio — had five points, but dished out seven more assists.
The Wildcats will be off until next Saturday (Dec. 15) when they take on Texas Tech at 6 p.m. in the Red Raiders' annual Throwback Game. Next Saturday's game between the Wildcats and the 13th-ranked Red Raiders is a special one because it will be played at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum where Tech played from 1956-99 before moving into the United Spirit Arena on campus. The game between the Wildcats and Red Raiders will be the final game played in the coliseum before it is demolished next spring to make way for new construction on the site.
