Wildcats back at home Wednesday night to face Huskies

Houston Baptist at ACU

When: Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Moody Coliseum (Abilene, Texas)
Records: Houston Baptist 5-9, 1-2; ACU 14-3, 3-1
Series: ACU leads 6-3
Last Game: ACU 82, Houston Baptist 74 (Jan. 10, 2018 / Houston, Texas)
Streak: ACU, w1
Last ACU win: ACU 82, Houston Baptist 74 (Jan. 10, 2018 / Houston, Texas)
Last HBU win: Houston Baptist 81, ACU 72 (March 3, 2018 / Houston, Texas)
Radio: 98.1 FM (98theticket.com)
Watch: STRETCH
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

ABILENE, Texas – The ACU Wildcats return home Wednesday night after a successful three-game road trip and waiting them will be the Houston Baptist Huskies, the top scoring team in the Southland Conference.

ACU and HBU will tip off at 7 p.m. at Moody Coliseum where the Wildcats are 7-0 on the season. The Wildcats improved to 14-3 overall and 3-1 in the league last week by going 2-1 on a three-game road swing that saw them lose by three points at Sam Houston State on Jan. 5 before winning by one point last Wednesday at McNeese and by three points last Saturday at Southeastern Louisiana.

At 3-1 in the league, the Wildcats are tied for second with Nicholls and New Orleans, one-half game behind league-leading Sam Houston State, which is 3-0.

The Huskies lead the league in scoring offense at 82.2 points per game, while the Wildcats lead the league in scoring defense, allowing just 63.4 ppg. The Huskies, however, are last in the 13-team league in scoring defense (giving up 84.1 ppg) in field goal percentage defense (allowing opponents to shoot 49.8 percent from the field), and in 3-point field goal percentage defense (allowing opponents to shoot 40.3 percent from beyond the arc).

Aside from leading the league in scoring defense, the Wildcats lead the league in field goal percentage (49.1 percent) and 3-point field goal percentage (42.1 percent).

Scouting the Wildcats
• The Wildcats are 14-3 on the season and off to the program's best start at the NCAA Division I level (since the 2013-14 season) and off to the program's best start overall since the 1998-99 team started 11-0 on its way to a 20-win season and a spot in the NCAA Division II national tournament.

• Last Wednesday's 73-72 win at McNeese was the 100th in the career of head coach Joe Golding, who is in his eighth season as the Wildcats' leader. Golding's teams were 24-30 in ACU's final two seasons at the NCAA Division II level (12-16 in 2011-12 and 12-14 in 2012-13) and then finished 24-41 (6-26 in league play) in the first two seasons at the NCAA Division I level (11-20 in 2013-14 and 10-21 in 2014-15). However, since this season's group of seniors – Jaylen Franklin, Jaren Lewis, Hayden Farquhar and Hayden Howell – arrived on the scene prior to the 2015-16 season, the Wildcats are 56-53 overall and 26-32 in Southland Conference play.

• The Wildcats' 14 wins through 17 games in 2018-19 are as many or more than 14 of the previous 19 teams in ACU history managed to win.

• Only 34 of the 97 previous teams in ACU men's basketball history have won as many as the 14 games the Wildcats have won so far this season.

• ACU is on pace for a 20-plus-win regular season, which would be only the fourth such regular season in program history (98 seasons). the only other regular seasons in ACU history to finish with 20 wins came in 1979-80 (23 regular-season wins in a 27-5 campaign), 1985-86 (20 regular-season wins in a 23-7 season), and 1997-98 (21 regular-season wins in a 22-6 season).

• Junior guard Payten Ricks was voted the Southland Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Monday. In a 73-72 win over McNeese, he poured in a game-high 19 points, including the game-winning three pointer with three seconds remaining. Ricks followed it up with a 22-point performance in a 75-72 victory over Southeastern Louisiana to secure the program's first-ever win in Hammond and second-ever win against the Lions.

• Against McNeese, Ricks tied his single-game career highs with five made three-pointers and six assists, with his final one leading to a Jaren Lewis layup that halted a four-point run and put the game out of reach for the Wildcats.

• On Saturday, Ricks played a vital role in improving the Wildcats' road mark to 5-3, converting all four attempts from beyond the arc, including the game-winner with 2.7 seconds to play. His 22 points were the second-most in a game in his career.

• This is Ricks' first Southland Conference Player of the Week award, joining teammate Jaren Lewis, who claimed two of the first three honors of the 2018-19 season.

• Ricks is second in Division I basketball in 3-point field goal percentage (51.7 percent), having hit 46 of 89 shots from beyond the arc this season. he's 26th in the country and first in the Southland Conference in total steals (37) and 34th in the country and first in the league in steals per game (2.18).

• In the Wildcats' conference-opening win over New Orleans on Jan. 2, senior forward Jaren Lewis failed to make a field goal for the first time since scoring just two points -- both on free throws -- in a loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Feb. 23, 2016, snapping a streak of 77 straight games with a field goal. Lewis, however, contributed in other ways, leading the team with nine rebounds (five offensive boards), three assists, two blocks and four steals in a team-high 38 minutes.

• Lewis is the only player in ACU's Division I era (since 2013-14) to post 1,300 career points, 700 career rebounds and 200 career assists. He enters Wednesday night's game against Houston Baptist with 1,334 career points, 506 career field goals, 718 career rebounds and 209 career assists.

• Lewis is 32nd in the country among active NCAA Division I players in career rebounds.

• Lewis has recorded 15 double-doubles in his career, including one this season, an 18-point, 15-rebound tour de force against Arkansas State as part of a 94-73 ACU win on Nov. 9. The Wildcats are 7-8 in games in which Lewis records a double-double.

• Senior point guard Jaylen Franklin ranks 12th among active Division I players in career steals with 186, 22nd in career assists (417), 23rd in career assist-t0-turnover ratio (1.53) and 35th in career steals per game (1.77).

• Franklin enters Wednesday's game second in the Southland Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.14), second in total assists (77), third in assists per game (4.5) and ninth in steals per game (1.59).

• ACU is the highest-ranked team from the Southland Conference in the latest NET Daily Ranking at 167, 49 spots ahead of Sam Houston State, which is at 216. The rest of the Southland is Lamar (234), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (241), Houston Baptist (242), New Orleans (256), Central Arkansas (272), Stephen F. Austin (276), Nicholls (282), McNeese (308), SE Louisiana (331), Northwestern State (339) and Incarnate Word (339).

• The Wildcatrs are ranked fourth in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (42.1 percent), 10th in the nation in turnover margin (4.8) and 13th in the country in total seals (151).

• ACU is 128 for 304 from beyond the arc for that shooting percentage of 42.1 on the season. However, that percentage goes up to 42.8 when counting only games against Division I foes as ACU has hit 92 of 215 shots from beyond the arc in its 13 Division I games.

• Lewis – who was the tournament MVP at the Tigers Thanksgiving Classic hosted by the University of the Pacific – was voted the Southland Conference Player of the Week twice in the first three weeks of the season.

• Earlier this season, the Wildcats limited UC-Riverside to just 48 points in the win over the Highlanders, the first time in almost 70 years the Wildcats have limited an NCAA Division I opponent to less than 50 points in a game. The last time ACU limited a Division I opponent to less than 50 points in a game came in a 43-40 loss to North Texas in December 1950.

• Since the Wildcats moved to NCAA Division I affiliation before the 2013-14 season, the Wildcats are 16-34 in non-conference Division I contests, including 7-27 in true road contests (13-29 when including a 6-2 record in neutral-site games). The Wildcats, however, are 11-7 in their last 18 non-conference Division I games dating back to the start of the 2017-18 season (7-2 this season), including 7-5 on the road.