SAN ANTONIO – The Wildcats are coming off their first loss in nearly a month as the top-seeded Lumberjacks held off the ACU comeback on Tuesday. ACU will close out the regular season on Saturday afternoon in San Antonio as they face the Cardinals of UIW. In their first meeting of the season, ACU held off the Cardinals 72-58 in Moody Coliseum. With a win on Saturday the Wildcats can secure consecutive 20-win regular seasons, as well as an outside chance of securing the two-seed in Katy.
FOLLOW THE GAME
- ACU at UIW: Saturday, Mar. 7 – 4:15 p.m.
Stretch Internet (Live Video),
Sidearm (Live Stats), 98.1 The Ticket with
Grant Boone (Radio Broadcast)
SERIES HISTORY
- The Wildcats trail in the series, 7-12, but have won five straight against the Cardinals.
- ACU has held UIW to less than 60 points in each of their last four meetings.
- In their last meeting,
Joe Pleasant led the way with 19 points with
Payten Ricks adding 15 and
Clay Gayman scoring 15 off the bench.
- The Wildcats will be looking for their fourth win in San Antonio.
ACU STORYLINES
- With a win on Saturday, the Wildcats will clinch back-to-back 20-win regular seasons for the first time in ACU basketball history. It will be just the second time the program has had back-to-back 20-win seasons including postseason, the last time being in 1997-98 and 1998-99.
- Also, with a win on Saturday and losses from Sam Houston and Central Arkansas, the Wildcats could secure the two-seed in the Southland Conference tournament. The two-seed gets a double-bye into the tournament semifinals.
- Sophomore,
Joe Pleasant, missed Tuesday's game against SFA with a minor injury. He is the second leading scorer on the team at just over 11 points per game.
-
Payten Ricks is coming off a low-scoring outing against SFA, going 2-11 from the field with just eight points.
-
Clay Gayman led the Wildcats with 17 points against SFA, but scored 16 of those points in the first half.
SCOUTING UIW
- The Cardinals are averaging just over 66 points per game while giving up 74 points per game.
- Keaston Willis is leading UIW in scoring at 13.2 points per game.
- As a team, UIW is shooting just 29.9 percent from beyond-the-arc on the season.
- At 6-13 in conference play, the Cardinals are already eliminated from postseason play, but will be eager to try and hurt the Wildcats chances at the two-seed.
