ACU at Sam Houston State
When: Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Where: Johnson Coliseum (Huntsville, Texas)
Records: Abilene Christian 12-2, 1-0; Sam Houston State 5-8, 0-0
Series: Sam Houston State leads 24-17
Last Game: Sam Houston State 84, ACU 77 (Feb. 3, 2018 / Huntsville, Texas)
Streak: SHSU won 1
Last ACU win: ACU 75, Sam Houston State 72 (Dec. 30, 2017 / Abilene, Texas)
Last Sam Houston State win: Sam Houston State 84, ACU 77 (Feb. 3, 2018 / Huntsville, Texas)
Radio:Â 102.7 FM The Bear (
102thebear.com)
Watch: BSN YouTube
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Game Notes: ACU I Southeast Missouri State
HUNTSVILLE – The ACU Wildcats open a three-game Southland Conference road swing Saturday with an afternoon matchup against the Bearkats of Sam Houston State. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at Johnson Coliseum.
ACU is 12-2 overall and 1-0 in the league after Wednesday night's 68-58 comeback win over New Orleans at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half before rallying in the second half to pull out a 10-point victory. The Wildcats are off to their best start 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. ACU is off to its best start at the NCAA Division I level (since 2013-14).
ACU head coach
Joe Golding – now in his eighth season as the Wildcats' head coach – enters Saturday's game with 99 career victories (all at ACU), needing just one more win to reach 100 for his career.
Here are some notes going into Saturday's contest:
• The Wildcats are 1-0 in league play for the first time since the 2015-16 season when the Wildcats beat Central Arkansas, 62-61, in the league-opener. ACU had lost to New Orleans each of the last two years in the conference-opening game, both of them in New Orleans.
• Senior
Jaren Lewis scored just four points in the win over New Orleans — all at the free throw line — surpassing 1,300 career points. With 1,303 points, Lewis is ACU's all-time leading scorer in the program's NCAA Division I era (since the 2013-14 season).
• 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 Wednesday night, leading the team with nine rebounds (five offensive boards), three assists, two blocks and four steals in a team-high 38 minutes.
• New Orleans was 0 for 8 from 3-point range, the first ACU opponent this season to fail to hit a shot from beyond the arc and the first opponent to miss all of its 3-pointers since Texas A&M-Corpus Christi went 0 for 9 in a 76-67 win over ACU on Feb. 22, 2018, in Abilene.
• New Orleans, in fact, is 0 for 14 from beyond the arc in its last two games against ACU after going 0 for 6 from the 3-point line in a 77-74 win over the Wildcats on Dec. 28, 2017. Going back even further, the Privateers have missed their last 16 3-point attempts against ACU after missing both 3-pointers in overtime in a 70-69 ACU win on Feb. 1, 2017, in Abilene.
• Lewis is still three field goals away from reaching 500 career field goals (497 for 950 from the field in his career). And with 696 rebounds, he's four away from eating 700 for his career.
• Franklin had four assists in the game to give him 403 for his career. He is ACU's NCAA Division I-era leader in assists, steals (182), games started (96) and minutes played (3,203).
• The Wildcats – ranked 157th in the country in the latest NET daily rankings – are ranked sixth in the country in turnover margin (plus-5.4), 16th in turnovers forced per game (17.8), 21st in field goal percentage (49.4), 10th in total steals (130), 15th in steals per game (9.3), and 14th in 3-point field goal percentage (40.0).
• Individually, junior guard
Payten Ricks ranks 14th in the country in total steals (35) and 18th in the nation in steals per game (2.50).
• For the first time in program history, ACU received votes (21) in the Nov. 26 collegeinsider.com Mid-Major poll. … The Wildcats are ranked 146 in the latest NET Daily Rankings.
•
Jaren 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.
• ACU senior point guard
Jaylen Franklin – who buried a buzzer-beating, game-winning jumper in the 73-71 win over Pacific – is playing the best basketball of his Wildcat career. Franklin is averaging 8.5 points per game, but has dished out 63 assists (4.5 per game) and committed just 26 turnovers (1.8 per game), giving him an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.42, which is third in the Southland and is 82nd in Division I basketball. Franklin is also second in the league in assists per game and eighth in steals per game (1.64).
• 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 prior to the start of 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.
• 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.
