ABILENE — It came down to the wire in Moody Coliseum on Saturday night as Southern Utah came from behind to earn a 74-72 win over the Wildcats. Abilene Christian set the tone in the first half and played their style of basketball, grinding out a 30-25 lead at the half. The Thunderbirds made some adjustments at the half and were able to push the tempo to a quicker pace to favor them in the second 20 minutes of action. SUU put up 49 points in the second half and ultimately won the game at the free throw line, making 22 freebies while the Wildcats managed to get to the line just 19 times. ACU had six players score in double figures and forced 21 turnovers but came up just short, turning the ball over on the final possession of the game.
Key Plays
- Cameron Steele popped out to the three-point line and hit from deep to give ACU a 10-6 lead six minutes into the game.
- Ali Dibba made a hustle play in the open court to grab a loose ball and take it the other way for a dunk, putting the Wildcats up by three with 11:43 to play in the first half.
- Hunter Jack Madden tallied a steal and fed the ball to Damien Daniels for a fastbreak layup to put ACU up 21-14, their largest lead of the game to that point.
- Immanuel Allen hit a three in the corner on a feed from Joe Pleasant that gave ACU the largest lead of the game, 28-18 with 3:33 to play in the first half.
- The Thunderbirds answered with a 7-0 run and, after late free throws for ACU, went into the locker room trailing 30-25.
- Pleasant hit a three early in the second half to push the Wildcat lead back to seven points and gave Daniels the 400th assist of his career.
- Tevian Jones tied the game at 37 for SUU on a jumper just outside the paint with 14:11 to play.
- Jones hit a three for the Thunderbirds and Drake Allen made a driving layup on back-to-back plays to give SUU a five-point lead with 9:30 to play.
- Dibba forced a turnover on the defensive end and the Wildcats answered with a bucket from Pleasant to take a three-point lead with 5:27 left in the game.
- Jones was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws with just over four minutes to play to regain the lead for Southern Utah.
- Jones made his fourth three of the night with 56 seconds remaining that seemed to be the potential dagger, putting SUU up five points, 70-65.
- The Thunderbirds missed free throws late that gave the Wildcats an opportunity to tie the game with five seconds to play but a bad bounce resulted in a turnover to end the game.
Turning Point
A made three from Jones and a layup by Allen on back-to-back plays gave SUU their first two-possession lead of the second half and helped push the momentum in their favor over the last 10 minutes of action.
Stat Pack
- Cameron Steele had a solid game for the Wildcats, leading the team with 16 points on 6-8 shooting. Six Wildcats in total scored in double figures on the night.
- Ali Dibba tallied a career-high four steals in addition to 12 points scored.
- The Wildcats forced 21 turnovers in their second-straight game. This is the first time the Wildcats have lost when forcing 20-plus turnovers since last year's game at home against SFA.
- ACU went a stellar 17-19 from the free throw line but shot just 39.7 percent from the field and 20 percent from three.
- The Wildcats had an advantage in points off turnovers (20-12), points in the paint (36-34), second-chance points (11-5), and bench points (30-13).
- After going 0-6 from three in the first half, the Thunderbirds went 4-5 from deep in the second half. All four threes were made by Jones.
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Up Next
The Wildcats will be on the road for their next three contests. Next week they will travel to UTRGV for a game Wednesday night before returning to West Texas to face Tarleton in Stephenville. The following week the team will go to Utah Valley before returning home to host UT Arlington on Jan. 21.
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