HUNTSVILLE – Armed with a chance to secure a series sweep of Sam Houston State and take another step toward a berth in the Southland Conference Postseason Tournament, the ACU Wildcats ran headlong into one of the league's hottest teams at Johnson Coliseum, and the Bearkats maintained their roll Saturday night with an 84-77 win over the Wildcats.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 14-10 overall and 6-5 in the league standings and into a sixth-place tie with Lamar (6-5) and Central Arkansas (6-5). ACU has the tiebreaker edge over both by virtue of its wins over both team, technically leaving the Wildcats in sixth place in the standings. The Bearkats, meanwhile, improve to 14-10 and 8-3 and move into a tie with Southeastern Louisiana for third in the league.
ACU's three-game winning streak over the Bearkats was snapped, although the Wildcats scored 77 points against the league's top-ranked scoring defense (66.4 ppg allowed by Sam entering the game) and shot 53.8 percent from the field against the league's top-ranked field goal defense percentage team (allowing teams to shoot just 41.4 percent entering the game).
The Wildcats had the game in good position with 3:09 left in the first half, trailing 33-30 with 3:09 left after a pair of free throws by
Tevin Foster made it a one-possession game. But the Bearkats ripped off a 10-2 run to end the half with Jamal Williams scoring seven straight points for Sam before Cameron Delaney buried a 3-point prayer at the halftime buzzer to give the Bearkats a 43-32 lead at the break.
The Wildcats cut into the lead with a hot start to the second half before Sam Houston State eventually pushed the lead back to eight points at 60-52 with 11:25 left after a layup by Marcus Harris, who finished with a career-high 28 points, including going 14 for 15 from the free throw line.
ACU, though, battled back, outscoring the Bearkats 9-2 over the next 3:17 to pull to within 62-61. Foster hit a layup before
Jalone Friday made a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 60-56 with 10:19 to play. Chris Galbreath Jr. made a layup before Foster hit a jumper and then buried a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game with 8:06 left in the game.
The game was hanging in the balance, waiting for one team to grab it and run away with it.
TURNING POINT
With 7:35 left in the game, ACU head coach
Joe Golding told his team in a timeout huddle that someone was about to go on a run to win the game. That turned out to be profoundly prophetic. Only it was Sam Houston State that went on the run.
Trailing 64-61, Friday missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity, and Delaney grabbed the defensive rebound. On the other end he was fouled and made both free throws for a 66-61 lead with 6:26 to play.
Jaren Lewis answered for the Wildcats with a jumper to make it 66-63 and a one-possession game with 6:06 to play. The Wildcats then played terrific defense on the other end, but weren't rewarded for it as Harris hit a desperation 3-pointer with 5:39 to play that made it a 69-63 game. Harris grabbed a loose ball and fired the ball from straight on as the shot-clock buzzer sounded. The ball sat on the back of the iron before it dropped straight through the net, pushing the Bearkats' lead back to six points.
The Bearkats made the Wildcats pay for a Foster turnover when Delaney hit a jumper to push the lead back to 71-63. The Wildcats would get no closer than eight points until a late jumper by Friday made it an 83-77 game with five seconds to play. Sam Houston hit 11 of 12 free throws in the final 3:13 of the game to salt it away.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Both
Jaylen Franklin and
Jaren Lewis topped the 1,000-career point plateau in Saturday night's loss. Franklin entered the game with 999 points and finished with 15 points to give him 1,014 career points, while Lewis entered with 989 career points and finished with 12 for 1,001 career points. They are the first two players in program history to crack 1,000 career points with all of their games having been played with ACU as an NCAA Division I member.
• ACU's bench scored just seven points with
B.J. Maxwell hitting a 3-pointer and
Hayden Howell converting 4 of 6 free throws. The Wildcats' bench was outscored 33-7 by the Bearkats' bench. ACU is 6-7 in games in which its bench has been outscored by the opposition, including 2-4 in Southland Conference games.
• The Wildcats' 19 turnovers are tied for their third-most in a game this season behind the 25 at Lipscomb on Dec. 17, 22 vs. Stephen F. Austin on Jan. 17 and the 19 last Wednesday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Joe Golding on the loss …
"Those 12 first-half turnovers and the 18 points they (Sam Houston State) got off those turnovers were the key to the game. We protected it a little bit better in the second half, but 19 turnovers is way too many. We competed and played hard, but you've got to give Sam Houston State credit for protecting their home floor. Now we've got to go home and do the same thing next week."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats are back at home Wednesday night (Feb. 7) to take on the Southland Conference's first-place team in the Nicholls Colonels. Nicholls beat New Orleans, 81-64, on Saturday to move to 8-2 and into first place in the league. The game is set for a 7 p.m. tipoff and can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket and can be seen on acusports.com.
