Wildcats host SFA looking to move closer to No. 2 seed

Stephen F. Austin at ACU

When: Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Moody Coliseum (Abilene, Texas)
Records: ACU 23-6, 12-4; Stephen F. Austin 14-14, 7-9
Series: SFA leads 20-15
Last Game: SFA 61, ACU 60 (Jan. 23, 2019 / Nacogdoches, Texas)
Streak: SFA, w3
Last ACU win: ACU 69, SFA 60 (Jan. 7, 2017 / Abilene, Texas)
Last UCA win: SFA 61, ACU 60 (Jan. 23, 2019 / Nacogdoches, Texas)
Radio: 98.1 FM (98theticket.com)
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats will close out the regular season with a pair of home games, beginning with Tuesday night's contest against Stephen F. Austin. Tipoff from Moody Coliseum is set for 7 p.m. and can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket and can be seen on ESPN+ and ESPN media platforms.

The Wildcats 23-6 overall and 12-4 in the Southland and are in second place in the league, trying to nail down the No. 2 seed for next week's Southland Conference Postseason Tournament, which would give them a double-bye into the semifinals.

The innumerable tiebreaker scenarios are too many to consider, but the Wildcats can clinch the No. 2 seed and the league's other double bye with either a win and a Southeastern Louisiana win over third-place New Orleans on Wednesday night, or with two home wins to close the regular season: Tuesday vs. SFA and Saturday vs. Incarnate Word.

SCOUTING ACU
• The Wildcats' 67-55 win Saturday afternoon at Central Arkansas was their 23rd of the season, twin the program record for wins in a regular season set by the 1979-80 team, which finished 27-5 and reached the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. For the Wildcats to tie the record of 27 wins, they would need to win their final two regular-season games and win their two conference tournament games. That combination would give them 27 wins, the Southland Conference championship and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

• The Wildcats are now 12-4 in conference play, which ties a program record for most conference wins in a season, matching the mark of 12 set by the 1979-80 squad, which finished 12-2 in the Lone Star Conference.

• The Wildcats are led by senior forward Jaren Lewis, who is closing in a big career milestone. He enters Tuesday night's game with 1,494 career points and 791 career rebounds, leaving him six points and nine rebounds away from becoming only the fourth Wildcat in the 98-plus years of ACU basketball to put up those numbers in a career. He would join Robert McLeod (1,607 career points and 1,237 career rebounds from 1957-61), Andrew Prince (1,624 career points and 1,000 career rebounds from 1972-75) and Rodney Fedell (1,810 career points and 939 career rebounds from 1976-80) in that select group.

• Lewis is averaging 13.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game this season, both of which lead the team. He averaged 16.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game last week in ACU's two road victories and played some of his best basketball of the season in the second of the comeback win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Wednesday night.

• Junior guard Payten Ricks continues to be one of the top 3-point shooters in the country, having hit 41.8 percent of his shots from beyond the arc this season (71 of 170). Ricks is averaging a career-best 11.6 points per game this season and he's also collected 48 steals.

• Senior point guard Jaylen Franklin – who has played some of the best basketball of his career this year, despite averaging a career-low 9.7 points per game — had 16 points last Wednesday vs. Corpus Christi and 12 points against Central Arkansas. However, in the win over the Bears he had six rebounds, eight assists, three steals and just one turnover to go along with those 12 points in 39 minutes on the floor.

• As a team, ACU ranks seventh in the country in turnover margin (plus-4.4), 15th in 3-point field goal percentage (38.9 percent), 17th in steals per game (8.7), 20th in scoring defense (63.7 ppg allowed), and 27th in scoring margin (plus-10.8 ppg).