ABILENE – Coming off a series of road setbacks and a few players down, Abilene Christian rose to the occasion at home, taking a 78-67 win over Texas-Arlington in Moody Coliseum on Saturday.
The week had started with Coach
Brette Tanner calling for community and student support of the team in his Monday press conference and the community responded on Saturday.
"I told the team on Thursday. I was so proud of how we played in the second half of that game. And I told him, let that be the turning point. Let's play that way on Saturday. And I thought we did. I thought we played with unbelievable energy. I think that the crowd helped. I'm so thankful for the people who came to the game today; the people from Abilene and the students. It was awesome. That's what it's supposed to be like. That's a home-court advantage and it got loud when we made plays. But the energy was off the chart. The crowd certainly helped with that but I thought our bench energy was great. So just proud of everybody tonight."
Airion Simmons and
Ali Abdou Dibba scored 23 points apiece and
Hunter Jack Madden added 18. Simmons hit both of his three-point attempts and blocked a couple of shots after ACU turnovers for good measure.
"Championship plays," Tanner said. "One of those turnovers was Airion's and he sprinted all the way down and blocked the ball. That's the Airion I know. He played with a little swagger. But there were multiple efforts. Hunter (Madden) getting on the floor for loose balls. Championship play after championship play, even when, when they cut it down a little bit, hit some shots. I thought we did a great job of making those plays. I thought we forced some turnovers in timely spots in the game."
The Wildcats certainly did their part with a fast start with three-pointers falling and
Leonardo Bettiol hitting some early hook shots to stake the home team to a 21-10 lead eight minutes into the game. Though UTA made it a close game on several occasions, ACU kept making the plays.
"It's a credit to our guys," said Tanner. "We've got fighters in that locker room, man. I thought when we played them the first time we kind of went to their style. I told our guys before the game, we're not doing that tonight. We're going to use our identity and that's pound the ball inside. That's playing unselfishly, and that's get after it defensively."
The Mavericks had whittled ACU's 12-point lead down to half of that and had the ball late but Dibba made a big steal and scored the fast-break layup for a 41-33 halftime lead.
UTA closed the gap to a one-possession game with 7:54 remaining but Madden had a three-point answer and ACU rode that for an 8-1 run to get back to a 67-57 lead with 5:31 left. The Mavs got no closer than seven points from there.
"I think we needed this one, man," said Tanner. "I don't mind saying that loud. We needed it."
ACU continues its four-game home string on Thursday when Utah Tech visits at 7 p.m.
