ABILENE, Texas — The Wildcats started their 2024-25 campaign on a strong note, taking down the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets, 107-74.
"These games are tough and Howard Payne came out and they do something we were not prepared for," head coach Brette Tanner said. "I thought our guys did a pretty good job adjusting, but there are still things we really need to work on. They're green and they're still learning, I think that if we can just continually get better, then this team is going to be hard to beat in late February and March."
ACU started the game strong, going on an 8-0 run to start the game, spearheaded by Nasir DeGruy, Quion Williams and Leonardo Bettiol.
Later in the first half, ACU went on to extend their lead thanks to an 18-0 run that ran from the 9:39 mark to the 7:07 minute mark. The Wildcats exploded and went on an 18-0 run allowing them to take a 60-35 lead into the locker room.
There was more of the same in the second half, starting the half on an 11-2 run coming out of the locker room, and ultimately held HPU to 30 percent shooting from the field to allow ACU to expand to lead to 40 points with just under four minutes left in the second half.
Apart from the Wildcats scoring 107 points in 40 minutes, plenty of other stats stood out. One in particular, the Wildcats finished with 76 rebounds on the night, obliterating the record that was previously set.
The Wildcats shot 57.5 percent from the field and also had 72 points in the paint. The team also had 56 bench points, 30 fast break points and 22 second chance points.
Four Wildcats finished the game in double-digits. Leading ACU in scoring was junior forward Leonardo Bettiol, who finished with 22 points and eight rebounds.
Junior guard and transfer from Oklahoma State, Quion Williams, also had a strong outing in his first game for the Purple and White. He finished with 20 points on 9-11 shooting with eight rebounds while also adding two blocks and one steal.
"He needed that because he struggled last weekend and he was really hard on himself. The thing that's amazing about Quuion is that a lot of times when when guys transfer from a Power 4 school those transfers feel like they kind of feel like they're doing you a favor. He has never taken that attitude. He's embraced our program like he is so happy to be here, and he wants so hard to do for this program, for this university, and he was able to do that by keeping it simple today."
Junior forward Bradyn Hubbard had the first double-double of the season for ACU, finishing the game with 12 points and 14 rebounds in 20 minutes of action off the bench.
"He's been trying hard to score, to do other things, and to shoot the ball and to, I think to impress the staff," Tanner said. "We had a lot of talk this week about just do what you do. Well, he is an elite rebounder and he goes out there and gets 14 rebounds. Because of that he gets 12 points and was able to have an impact today."
Freshman guard Dontrez Williams also had a strong night in his first time playing under the college lights. Williams finished with 16 points with six rebounds.
Coming up next for the Wildcats, the Wildcats face one of their toughest nonconference matchups of the season on Saturday. The Wildcats will take on Middle Tennessee out of Conference USA, one of the biggest teams to come play in Moody Coliseum throughout Tanner's tenure.
They're really, really talented," Tanner said. "We got a lot of work to do, but I'm excited about bringing, Middle Tennessee in here. We need the energy that we had tonight. The students were awesome and it made an impact. We need every student that is available to show up on Saturday. We also would love the support from the community again because they made an impact as well."
The game on Saturday, November 9 will begin at 6 p.m., with the game airing on ESPN+ and 101.7 FM, The Patriot. If fans can't watch the game in person or stream it, fans can follow the game on X, Facebook, Instagram or acusports.com.
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