SAN ANTONIO — For the ACU Wildcats, five months of practice, hard work, travel and the emotional roller-coaster of a 31-game regular season comes down to this: they don't control their own Southland Conference Tournament fate going into the final game of the season.
That's the situation the Wildcats will find themselves in Saturday afternoon at Incarnate Word when they take on the Cardinals at 3 p.m. in the regular-season finale for both teams. ACU enters the game at 15-15 overall and 7-10 in the Southland Conference, while the Cardinals are 7-20 and 2-15.
The Wildcats enter the final game of the regular season tied for eighth with McNeese and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and needing a win and some help to earn a spot in the conference tournament next week in Katy. Because ACU doesn't own the tiebreaker edge over either McNeese or Corpus, Saturday's game in San Antonio won't be the only one that will affect the Wildcats' post-season fate.
First and foremost, the Wildcats have to snap their current four-game losing streak Saturday and beat Incarnate Word to reach 8-10 in the league. Then they need some help in the form of Lamar going to Lake Charles, La., and beating McNeese (that would make McNeese 7-11) and Corpus Christi losing at Houston Baptist, a loss that would also drop the Islanders to 7-11.
A four-game losing streak by the Wildcats entering Saturday's game has left that as the only option for them to reach the conference tournament. However, even if the Wildcats don't get the help they need to get to Katy, they're still playing for a couple of things:
• The program's first winning record since the 2007-08 season;
• A possible invitation to either the CIT or CBI post-season tournaments.
ACU junior forward
Jaren Lewis and sophomore center
Jalone Friday are tied for 17th in the league in scoring at 13.3 points per game, while Lewis is fourth in the league in rebounding at 7.7 per game. Graduate transfer guard
Tevin Foster is third on the team in scoring at 12.2 ppg, while junior point guard
Jaylen Franklin is fourth on the team in scoring (10.7).
After losing 17 straight from Dec.19-Feb. 21, UIW is on a two-game winning streak following an 83-71 victory over HBU Wednesday night from the McDermott Center. It was the Cardinals' first win this season when behind at halftime (trailed HBU, 41-37).
On the season, Charles Brown III ranks 15th in the Southland Conference at 13.6 ppg, while Johnson is tied with Foster for 22nd in the league in scoring (12.2 ppg).
