MBB hosts Sam Houston in Moody Saturday night

ABILENE – The ACU men’s basketball team takes it three-game winning streak into a big-time showdown with Sam Houston on Saturday night at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats (13-11, 5-6 WAC) return to the friendly confines after the Thursday bye to battle their long-time rival Bearkats (17-6, 7-4 WAC), who are also off the mid-week bye. It’s the first of two meetings between the schools this season, with the final one coming in the regular season finale on Friday, March 3 in Huntsville. Saturday's game tips at 6 p.m. and airs on both ESPN+ and the ACU Sports Network.

SERIES HISTORY VS. SAM HOUSTON

• ALL-TIME | 41st meeting (SHSU leads, 26-14)
• LAST MEETING | SHSU 75, ACU 71 - OT (Feb. 17, 2022 -  Huntsville)
• STREAK | SHSU, w2
• IN ABILENE | ACU leads, 9-8
• IN HUNTSVILLE | SHSU leads, 17-3
• NEUTRAL | ACU leads, 2-1
• POSTSEASON | n/a

ACU STORYLINES

• WEST COAST WINNING | Abilene Christian had one of of the toughest WAC road trips last week, playing at Seattle U and then at California Baptist. The Wildcats came away with a 2-0 record after put-ting the clamps on both teams in the second half. ACU gave up 49 points to SU in the first half before holding them to 19 in the second. At CBU, the Wildcats cut a double-digit first half deficit to just one point before the half and came back to take the lead early in the second half to come away with another win.
• 70 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER | The Wildcats have 11 losses, all when allowing their opponents to score 70-plus points in the game. The team does have three wins when allowing an opponent to score more than 70, a 92-82 win at NAU, the 81-76 win over Utah Tech at home, and at CBU 87-71.
• BOUNCE-BACK W | The Wildcats as a whole were on fire last Saturday in a dominant win over UT Arlington at home. The team shot 80 percent or better from the floor, from three, and at the FT line in the second half. Simmons and Steele each went off from deep and four Wildcats scored in double figures in the win. The team also had their first game holding an oppo-nent under 70 points since the 12/31 win over Tarleton.
• SHOOTING STRUGGLES | The Wildcats have shot below their season average over a five game stretch from 12/31-1/18 and have shot 26 percent or worse from deep over a four-game losing streak. During the same stretch, ACU has allowed oppone-nets to shoot some of their best percentages of the season, especially from deep.
• BALANCED BALLIN’ | The Wildcats have four players averaging nine or more points per game and seven players averaging 7.6 or more points. The team is ranked 24 in the NCAA for assists per game with 16.3, with the best in the WAC. Tobias Cameron leads the Wildcats averaging 4.8 re-bounds, but six different players are averaging at least three boards a game. There have been seven different players to lead
  the team in scoring in a game this year and 11 players have registered at least one game with double-figure scoring.
• LIGHTS, CAMERA, WACTION | The top 12 teams in conference play will earn a berth into the tournament in Las Vegas, but they will be seed-ed by the new system. The Wildcats currently sit at 9th in the resume seeding system. The Wildcats began WAC play at SFA, the first time the two teams met in a conference opener. SFA came away with the win at home, 75-68.
• WAC RESUME SEEDING | With the new rules for conference tournament seed-ing, the Wildcats are sitting near the bottom of the pack at this point of the season. Conference win/loss records will determine who makes it to WACVegas but the resume seeding system will determine the order in which teams are seeded.

SCOUTING SAM HOUSTON (17-6, 7-4 WAC)

• The Bearkats had their five-game winning streak snapped last Saturday in a loss at UT Arlington, 70-58.
• Sam Houston's defense has been the strength of the team all season, allowing less than 60 points per game.
• Offensively, Qua Grant leads the way with 13.3 points per game and Donte Powers is scoring 10.7 per night.

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