Box Score SAN ANTONIO – The Wildcats wrapped up a 2-0 road week Saturday afternoon with another dominating defensive effort in a 68-48 win over Incarnate Word at the McDermott Center on the UIW campus.
After losing a double-overtime heartbreaker last Saturday against Sam Houston State, the Wildcats responded with back-to-back road wins Wednesday and Saturday over Nicholls and Incarnate Word, respectively, and allowed just 48 points to each in a pair of victories. Prior to those two wins, ACU had only allowed less than 50 points to an NCAA Division I opponent one time since 1951 and that was earlier this season (Nov. 24, 2018) when the Wildcats beat UC-Riverside, 60-48, in Stockton, California.
The Wildcats entered Saturday's game 23
rd in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 64.2 points per game and have limited 12 of 26 opponents to 60 points or less this season. ACU will go into its final five games of the regular season now allowing just 63.5 points per game.
"We were really good defensively again (Saturday)," ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "We're really starting to buy into that end of the floor and it shows. What we did defensively in these two road games is the sign of a mature team that wants to win and be special on the defensive end of the floor."
ACU forced 20 Incarnate Word turnovers (eight in the decisive second half), out-rebounded the Cardinals 28-21 and came up with nine steals as the Wildcats won their third straight game against Incarnate Word.
Neither team played especially well in the first half, although the Wildcats rebounded from a 4-0 deficit to start the game to carry a 27-21 lead into halftime. The spark the Wildcats needed to carry a lead into halftime came from sophomore center
Kolton Kohl, who played the best minutes of his career, finishing with seven points, three rebounds and one block to help the Wildcats seize the momentum. Two of his offensive rebounds were putback dunks, electrifying the bench and turning the tide in the Wildcats' favor.
"We needed a spark at the end of the half and Kolton gave it to us," Golding said. "Our bench was really good and those guys – Kolton,
Hayden Farquhar,
Trey Lenox,
Damien Daniels,
Joe Pleasant and
Clay Gayman – gave us a good spark going into halftime."
The early part of the second half belonged to
Jalone Friday as the Wildcats' junior center scored eight points in the first 2:58 of the second half – six coming on back-to-back 3-pointers – to give the Wildcats a 37-25 lead with 17:02 left in the game. UIW would not get closer than 10 the rest of the way, and after Friday led the charge early it was seniors
Jaylen Franklin and
Jaren Lewis who led the charge late.
Franklin bulled his way into the lane over and over late in the second half and finished with 12 points to go along with a game-high six rebounds and six assists. Lewis added nine points and five rebounds as he did usual dirty work inside. And
Payten Ricks – on a night when his shot wasn't falling – was a menace on the defensive end, finishing with two steals and a drawn charge to go along with five assists.
The Wildcats are now 21-5 overall and 10-3 in the Southland Conference and still in second place in the league behind Sam Houston State. ACU will be off Wednesday, but returns to action next Saturday (Feb. 23) for a 3 p.m. home game against charging Southeastern Louisiana in a game set to be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.
"Anytime you can get some rest this late in the season it's a good thing," Golding said. "We've got some things we need to clean up this week and get ready for the last five games of the regular season. Those are huge games for us if we want to accomplish the goals we set before the season started. We didn't protect home floor last Saturday (vs. Sam Houston State), so we need to get back to that next Saturday. I'd love to see another big crowd at Moody – bigger than what we had against Sam Houston – to watch this team play in meaningful games this late in the season."
