Wildcats back on the road to take on red-hot Lamar

ACU at Lamar

When: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Montagne Center (Beaumont, Texas)
Records: ACU 18-4, 7-2; Lamar 11-11, 4-5
Series: ACU leads 15-14
Last Game: ACU 74, Lamar 69 (Jan. 31, 2018 / Abilene, Texas)
Streak: ACU, w4
Last ACU win: ACU 74, Lamar 69 (Jan. 31, 2018 / Abilene, Texas)
Last Lamar win: Lamar 80, ACU 61 (Feb. 9, 2015 / Garland, Texas)
Radio: 98.1 FM (98theticket.com)
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: SIDEARM

BEAUMONT, Texas – After enjoying their first bye of the Southland Conference season last Saturday, the ACU Wildcats are back at it Wednesday night when they travel to southeast Texas to take on one of the most dangerous teams in the league in the Lamar Cardinals.

Lamar has won back-to-back road games over Nicholls and McNeese entering the game, which is the start of the second half of conference play for both teams. ACU is alone in second place in the league at 7-2, 1 1/2 games behind Sam Houston State, which is 8-0. Lamar, meanwhile is 4-5 in the league after the two road wins last week.

Lamar is led by Josh Nzeakor (15.9 ppg) and guard Nick Garth (15.2 ppg), while Christian Barrett was voted the league's Player of the Week on Monday after posting a pair of double-doubles in Lamar's two road wins.

The Wildcats are led by senior forward Jaren Lewis (13.2 ppg), junior center Jalone Friday (12.8 ppg), junior guard Payten Ricks (12.4 ppg), junior guard B.J. Maxwell (9.0 ppg) and senior point guard Jaylen Franklin (8.0 ppg), all of whom are expected to be in the starting lineup Wednesday night for ACU head coach Joe Golding.

Here are some notes ahead of Wednesday night's contest in Beaumont:

HEADLINER
• The Wildcats are 18-4 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.

• ACU has the most overall wins in the league by a wide margin and is one of seven teams with double-digit wins on the season (Sam Houston has 14, New Orleans 12, Lamar and Stephen F. Austin each have 11 and Central Arkansas and defending league regular season c0-champion Nicholls have 10 apiece). Only 18 team in the country – led 21-1 Houston and Nevada and 21-2 Gonzaga – have more wins at the Division I level than the 18 posted by ACU. The Wildcats are in a group that includes defending national champion Villanova, Kentucky, Michigan State and Lipscomb with 18 wins on the season.

100 WINS FOR GOLDING
• The Wildcats' 73-72 victory at McNeese on Jan. 12 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 21-41 (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, HaydenFarquhar and Hayden Howell – arrived on the scene prior to the 2015-16 season, the Wildcats are 60-54 overall and 20-33 in Southland Conference play.

• Golding – who has a career record of 105-125   – has coached the Wildcats to the fourth-most wins of any head coach in the history of ACU men's basketball, trailing A.B. Morris (306-248 from 1924-55), Dee Nutt (208-201 from 1955-69 and 1988-90), and Mike Martin (148-152 from 1980-88 and 1999-2002).

RECORD PACE
• Last Wednesday night's ACU victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was the Wildcats' first ever against the Islanders (1-9 all time) and pushed ACU to 18-4 on the season as the Wildcats continue to surge past last season's win total of 16, which was the most by a men's team since the 2008-09 season when ACU was 20-9. Only 11 teams in ACU's 98 seasons of basketball – including this year's – have recorded at least 18 wins, the last of those coming in 2007-08.

• 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 season that ended with the Wildcats at 22-6).

RICKS ON FIRE
• Junior guard Payten Ricks is having one of the best long-range shooting seasons in ACU history, and his .466 shooting percentage from beyond the arc this season is the best season performance in program history.

• Last Wednesday against Corpus Christi, he broke out of a mini shooting slump by hitting 5 of 8 shots from beyond the arc to give 55 3-pointers this season (on 118 attempts). He leads the Southland and is 11th in Division I basketball in 3-point field goal percentage (.466) and he's second in the league and 120th in the country in total 3-point field goals.

• Ricks is also having a terrific defensive season as he ranks fourth in the league and 53rd in the country in total steals (42) and fourth in the league and 59th in the country in steals per game (1.91).

LEWIS LEAVING HIS MARK
• Jaren 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 at Lamar with 1,402 career points, along with 746 career rebounds, 162 steals and 220 assists.

• Among active players at the NCAA Division I level, Lewis ranks 37th in rebounds and 88th in points. He is ACU's all-time Division I leader in both of those categories, among others.

• 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.

FRANKLIN'S FAVORITE DISHES
• Senior point guard Jaylen Franklin is 10th among active Division I players in career steals with 202, and he is 23rd in career assists (444), 31st in career assist-t0-turnover ratio (1.56) and 24th in career steals per game (1.84).

• Franklin – who tied his single-game record last Wednesday against Corpus Christi with six steals – enters Wednesday's game at Lamar third in the Southland in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.12), second  in total assists (104) and assists per game (4.7), third in total steals (43) and third in steals per game (1.95).

• Franklin has 500 career field goals, joining Lewis (533 career field goals) as the only two Wildcats with at least 500 career field goals at the NCAA Division I level. He is 25 field goal attempts from reaching 1,000 for his career, and he needs just six assists to hit 450 for his career.  

MILESTONES
• Junior center Jalone Friday enters the game Wednesday night with 1,028 career points, only the fourth Wildcat in the program's NCAA Division I era (since 2013-14) to top 1,000 career points, joining senior forward Jaren Lewis (1,402 points), senior point guard Jaylen Franklin (1,281 points) and former shooting guard Parker Wentz (1,062 points in his final three seasons after scoring 217 points in his freshman season of 2012-13, ACU's last season at the NCAA Division II level).

• In ACU's 78-69 win over Northwestern State earlier this season, Friday also became just the 11th player in ACU history and third in the Division I era to top 100 career 3-pointers. In the NCAA Division I era, Wentz is ACU's all-time leader in 3-pointers made with 210, followed by Austin Cooke with 136 and Friday now with 104. Ricks is tied for fourth with former shooting guard Hunter Cooley with 86 career 3-pointers. Friday is ninth in ACU history in 3-pointers made and 13th in career 3-point field goal percentage (.380).