Wildcats begin postseason run Friday night vs. Lions

Southland Conference Tournament
Semifinals
SE Louisiana vs. ACU

When: Friday, March 15, 2019
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Merrell Center (Katy, Texas)
Records: ACU 25-6; SE Louisiana 17-15
Series: SLU leads 8-2
Last Game: SLU 75, ACU 66 (Feb. 23, 2019 / Abilene, Texas)
Streak: SLU, w1
Last ACU win: ACU 75, SLU 72 (Jan. 12, 2019 / Hammond, Louisiana)
Last SLU win: SLU 75, ACU 66 (Feb. 23, 2019 / Abilene, Texas)
Radio: 98.1 FM (98theticket.com)
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: SIDEARM

KATY, Texas — The 2018-19 ACU men's basketball season actually started last March in a cramped locker room in Des Moines, Iowa, in the disappointment of a loss to Drake in the first round of the CIT.

It was in that moment that head coach Joe Golding told his team that the 2017-18 season while good (a 16-16 finish that included the program's first winning regular season since 2007-08) wouldn't be good enough the following season. The Wildcats, he said, had to learn from their mistakes of that season and not repeat them in 2018-19 if they wanted to achieve the loftiest of goals: playing in the NCAA Tournament.

The 2018-19 squad put the lessons of last season to good use throughout this year's campaign, forging a 25-6 overall record and 14-4 mark in conference play that gave ACU a second-place finish in the Southland Conference and a double-bye into the semifinals of the postseason tournament. And now, after two days of waiting, the Wildcats begin their quest to make good on what they set out to do when they take on Southeastern Louisiana at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the second of two semifinal games at the Merrell Center.

Southeastern — which finished third in the regular season at 12-6 after an 0-4 start — reached the semifinals by beating upstart Central Arkansas, 79-65, in Thursday night's quarterfinals. Friday night's first semifinal will feature No. 4 seed New Orleans — a 76-72 winner on Thursday over No. 5 seed Lamar — taking on regular-season champion and No. 1 seed Sam Houston State at 5 p.m.

The winners of the two semifinal games will meet Saturday at 8:30 p.m. for the tournament championship and the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Six seasons ago when the Wildcats began this journey from NCAA Division II membership to NCAA Division I affiliation, the mere thought of ACU one day playing in the NCAA Tournament was almost ludicrous. ACU had struggled mightily at the Division II level for most of the previous 15 seasons and the first couple of seasons at the Division I level weren't pretty, either.

But a quartet of seniors — Jaylen Franklin, Jaren Lewis, Hayden Farquhar and Hayden Howell (redshirting this season) — arrived on the scene in 2015-16 and things began to change. Along with veterans like Parker Wentz, Austin Cooke, Duran Porter, Isaiah Tripp, Drake Green, Jalen Little and Tevin Foster, the program's fortunes began to turn.

In fact, over the last four years the Wildcats are a combined 67-56 overall and 37-35 in the Southland Conference, including 41-22 overall and 22-14 in conference play the last two seasons. And now this team finds itself two wins away from going to The Big Dance.

Standing in the way, however, is a loaded Southeastern squad, which is playing some of the best basketball in the league. The Lions are led by two first team all-conference selections in forward Moses Greenwood and senior guard Marlain Veal. Those two combined to score 37 points (Greenwood with 22 and nine rebounds) in Thursday night's win over Central Arkansas.

The Wildcats and Lions have split a pair of games this season, each winning on the opponent's home floor. ACU went to Hammond, Louisiana on Jan. 12 and beat the Lions, 75-72, on a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Payten Ricks, giving ACU its first win ever in Hammond. The Lions returned the favor on Feb. 23 in Abilene when they knocked off a reeling ACU squad, 75-66, at Moody Coliseum.

Two days before the game the Wildcats learned two starters were dismissed from the team and they would have to re-group and forge ahead without Jalone Friday or B.J. Maxwell throughout the balance of the season. Greenwood was nearly unstoppable in the win at ACU, finishing with 27 points and 11 rebounds, and the Lions out-rebounded ACU, 44-26, with 17 offensive rebounds leading to 21 second-chance points.

After that initial setback, however, ACU has played some of its best basketball of the season, especially on the defensive end of the floor. The Wildcat have won four straight games with road wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Central Arkansas and home wins over Stephen F. Austin and Incarnate Word. In each of the last three games, ACU has allowed just 55, 58 and 52 points, respectively, and they are allowing just 60.8 points per game since losing the two starters.

The Wildcats have also had a balanced scoring attack with four players averaging in double figures over the last five games: Lewis at 15.2 ppg, Franklin at 14.6 ppg, Farquhar at 13.2 ppg and Ricks at 10.0 ppg. ACU is holding opponents to just 42.6 percent shooting from the floor, including just 36.7 percent from 3-point range. And ACU's defense has forced 69 turnovers in those five games (13.8 per game), while the Wildcats have committed just 42 turnovers of their own (8.4 per game).

ACU and Southeastern feature two of the top scoring defenses in the Southland Conference with ACU leading the league in scoring defense (allowing just 63.1 ppg) and Southeastern at No. 3, allowing 67.5 ppg. The Wildcats also rank in the top 20 in the nation in turnover margin (seventh at plus-4.5), turnovers forced per game (13th at 16.5), 3-point field goal percentage (16th at 38.8 percent), total steals (17th with 266), and steals per game (18th at 8.6).