HAMMOND, Louisiana — Faced with another nail-biter on the road Saturday evening, the ACU Wildcats didn't flinch, walking out of the University Center at Southeastern Louisiana with a dramatic 75-72 win over the Lions.
Freshman point guard
Damien Daniels came up with the defensive play of the game with eight seconds to play and the game tied 72-72 when he stole the ball from Von Julien on a drive to the basket that could have ended in a go-ahead bucket for the Lions. Instead, Daniels poked the ball away, controlled it and pushed the ball up the court to give the Wildcats a chance to win.
Daniels found Ricks on the right wing and he made a quick move to his left to get a clean line of sight, and he buried a 3-pointer to put the Wildcats on top, 75-72, with 2.7 seconds to play. Southeastern called a timeout to set up its final offensive play, but Marlain Veal's running 3-pointer from 50 feet was off line and the Wildcats had their first win ever at Southeastern and only their second all-time against the Lions.
Ricks finished 4 of 4 from 3-point range for 22 points after going 5 for 8 from 3-point range for 19 points Wednesday in the 73-72 road win over McNeese. Daniels played the best game of his freshman season as he finished with a career-high 10 points (5 of 5 shooting), one assist and one steal in 20 minutes, playing in place of senior
Jaylen Franklin, who fouled out with four points, two assists and three steals in 24 minutes.
Junior guard
B.J. Maxwell had 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds in 35 gutty minutes, while freshman
Joe Pleasant — starting at center for the second straight game — had 11 points in 18 minutes before fouling out. Senior
Hayden Farquhar had just two points, but he came up with five big rebounds (two offensive boards) in 21 minutes and
Jaren Lewis had eight points, six rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals in 38 minutes.
"We had heroes up and down the lineup (Saturday night)," said ACU head coach
Joe Golding, who saw his team improve to 14-3 overall and 3-1 in the Southland Conference. "We've got a veteran team and they didn't back down when things weren't going well in the first half or when we fell behind late in the game. They keep playing, and that's rubbing off on our younger guys. Damien was special all game and Joe (Pleasant) played well."
The Wildcats trailed 35-34 at halftime, but came out of the lockerroom on fire and took as much as a seven-point lead on several occasions midway through the half. ACU led 61-54 with 8:03 left in the game after a layup by Daniels before Veal hit three straight free throws to cut the lead to 61-57 with 6:56 left. After Ricks hit a free throw, Keith Charleston responded with a 3-pointer at the 6:20 mark to cut the ACU lead to 62-60.
Veal then hit two more free throws for the Lions, who were 31 of 33 from the charity stripe, to tie the game at 62-62 with 5:40 left in the game. Ricks and Veal then exchanged layups before Maxwell and Veal each hit two free throws to leave the game knotted 68-68 with 2:06 left. Julien and Daniels then exchanged buckets and the game was 70-70 with 1:25 left to play.
Moses Greenwood hit a jumper for Southeastern to give the Lions a 72-70 lead with 1:05 left before Lewis made a strong move to the basket and laid it in to knot the game once again at 72 apiece with 40 seconds to play. That set up the final sequence that saw Daniels take the ball away and find Ricks for the game-winner, pushing the Wildcats to 5-3 in true road games this season and 7-3 away from Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats will be back in action Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they host Houston Baptist at Moody Coliseum.
