Wildcats open home WAC slate with familiar foes

Thursday, January 6

Abilene

7 P.M.

Abilene Christian

Stephen F. Austin

Wildcats MBB huddles after a foul call in the game against Utah Valley

Photo by: Cassie Kelley

Wildcats open home WAC slate with familiar foes

1/5/2022 10:22:00 AM | Men's Basketball

ABILENE, Texas - After getting two gritty wins on the road, the Wildcats are 2-0 in WAC play and are ready to defend home court as they welcome SFA and Sam Houston to the Teague Center this weekend. ACU swept the Lumberjacks in the season series last year for the first time since making the jump to DI and they split with the Bearkats with each team winning at home.

Tomorrow night is Military Appreciation night for our game against SFA!

Military members get in free when they show their ID at the ticket desk

First 300 fans receive a free t-shirt! #GoWildcats | #NewJourneySameGoal pic.twitter.com/f80RpetHc7
— ACU Basketball (@ACU_MBB) January 5, 2022

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SFA: ESPN+ | Sam Houston: ESPN+

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LIVE STATS

SFA: StatBroadcast | Sam Houston: StatBroadcast

SERIES HISTORY

VS SFA

ALL-TIME | 41st meeting (SFA leads series 22-18)
LAST MEETING | Mar. 3, 2021 at SFA, ACU W 63-61
STREAK | ACU W2
IN ABILENE | 3-3 (DI)
IN NACOGDOCHES | 1-5 (DI)

VS SAM HOUSTON

ALL-TIME | 38th meeting (SHSU leads series 24-14)
LAST MEETING | Feb. 21, 2021 at ACU, ACU W 86-72
STREAK | ACU W1
IN ABILENE | 4-3 (DI)
IN HUNTSVILLE | 1-6 (DI)

ACU Storylines (11-2, 2-0 WAC)

The Wildcats could not have won any different than in their two games to open WAC play. After on offensive shootout with Utah Valley to open the season with a four-point win, it was a defensive slugfest in St. George as they earned a tough 14-point win over the Trailblazers.
ACU continues to lead the nation in turnover margin at +10.7 nearly a three turnover different from the next team who boasts a +7.8 turnover margin. The team is also leading the country in steals averaging 12.5 per game.
Cameron Steele took a huge step forward last weekend as he averaged nearly a double-double to help lead the Wildcats to two wins. He posted 17p and 9r in the win over UVU before notching his first career double-double in the win over Dixie State with 23p and 10r. This performance earned him WAC Player of the Week honors.
Airion Simmons was another bright spot last weekend as he went for a career-high 21 points in the win over Utah Valley and then just missed a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds against Dixie State.
ACU will have a lot on the line this weekend as they try to extend their season win streak to 12 games and their home win streak to 22. The Wildcats currently hold the fourth-longest win streak in the country and the seventh-longest home winning streak in the country.

Scouting the Lumberjacks (8-4, 0-0 WAC)

SFA will likely be anxious to get back on the court as they last saw action on the road at Kansas on Dec. 18. The Lumberjacks played a solid game against the Jayhawks and took it to the wire losing 80-72 in Allen Fieldhouse.
The team had their final non-conference matchup with Jackson State canceled due to COVID as well as their first two WAC contests slated for last weekend.
Gavin Kensmil has been dominant for the Lumberjacks so far this season and leading the team with 16.2 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game.
The team has impressive wins over Liberty and Buffalo, but dropped a home game to ULM prior to their trip to Kansas.
SFA is top-20 in the country in FG percentage shooting 48.8 percent from the floor and are top-30 in three-point FG percentage shooting 37.7 percent on the year.

Scouting the Bearkats (7-8, 2-0 WAC)

Sam Houston will be playing their third game of the week on Saturday night after getting a win over UTRGV on Monday and traveling to Tarleton for a game on Thursday night. The Bearkats have moved to 7-8 after winning their last three games.
The Bearkats played a tough non-conference schedule facing the likes of Nebraska, Texas, SMU, and North Texas all of which were losses for Sam Houston.
The team is led by Texas A&M transfer Savion Flagg who is averaging 19.7 points per game to lead the WAC and is coming off a 27p and 17r night against UTRGV on Monday.
The Bearkats are a great rebounding team and are outrebounding their opponents by nearly seven boards per contest.

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