ABILENE – Abilene Christian hits the road this week for games Thursday at Seattle (9 p.m. CT) and Saturday at Utah Valley (3 p.m. CT).
The Wildcats are 8-13 on the season and 3-7 against the WAC.
Seattle is 13-9 on the season and 6-5 in the WAC after a 61-60 win at California Baptist on Saturday.
The Wolverines are 9-13 overall and 4-7 against the WAC with a home game against Tarleton coming on Thursday.
ACU Storylines
At the Line: Abilene Christian's attacking offensive style has the team among the nation's leaders in getting to the free throw line. The Wildcats average 17.2 made free throws per game (22nd in the NCAA) and 24 attempts (20th). The WAC is pretty good about attacking the basket and drawing fouls and those ACU numbers are only fourth in the league. The Cats are shooting 71.8 percent from the free-throw line this season.
Dealing Pressure: ACU's defense is turnover-based. The Cats are 19th nationally, forcing 15.6 turnovers per game, 57th in the NCAA and first in the WAC with a 2.4 turnover margin. ACU also is 63rd in the NCAA, forcing 7.9 steals per game.
Ali Abdou Dibba leads the Wildcats with 1.4 steals per game and four of today's projected starters average one or more steals per game.
Leaders: ACU is led in scoring this season by Dibba at 15.0 points per game, followed by
Airion Simmons at 14.2 and
Hunter Jack Madden at 12.1. Simmons leads the team in rebounding at 6.6 per game.
Against the League: Simmons has a team-leading 16.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game against the Western Athletic Conference. Dibba averages 15.5 points and 2.1 steals per game in WAC games. ACU forced an average of 16.8 turnovers per game in WAC contests. The Wildcats make an average of 23.4 trips to the free throw line against the WAC and are shooting 71.4 percent there.
Roadies: ACU is 1-7 in true road games this season with losses in its seven road games since opening with a win at Oklahoma State. Dibba averages 14.9 points and 5.2 rebounds on the road. Simmons and Madden get 12 points each on average in the true road contests. Simmons averages a team-leading 5.7 rebounds per road game.
History with Seattle: ACU is 2-1 all-time against Seattle. ACU won in Seattle last season, 83-68. Simmons had nine points and seven rebounds in that game and Alex Schumacher led Seattle with 16 points.
Scouting Seattle: The game takes place again this year in Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL Seattle Kraken and WNBA Seattle Storm. Schumacher leads the WAC with a 1.94 turnover/assist ratio and 4.8 assists per game. He averages 14 points per game. Cameron Tyson leads the Redhawks with 17.8 points per game. He leads the WAC with 3.11 three-pointers and a 37.3 percentage from three-point range. Kobe Williamson and Brandton Chatfield average 10 points and six rebounds each.
History with Utah Valley: ACU and Utah Valley are a matching 2-2 in the all-time series. UVU took the series last season, winning 66-62 in Abilene and 84-54 in Orem. In the loss at UVU, no Wildcats reached double figures in scoring. Simmons had six points and six rebounds.
Scouting UVU: Caleb Stone-Carrawell leads UVU with 12.4 points per game. Drake Allen averages 11.6 points and is second in the league with 3.9 assists per game. Trevin Dorius leads the team with 7.2 rebounds per game and is third in the WAC with 2.7 offensive rebounds per game.
Last Game: After falling behind early, ACU took a late lead but lost in overtime, 76-73, after Tarleton State hit a three-pointer to tie the game late in regulation. Simmons led the Wildcats with 24 points and added seven rebounds.
Kavion McClain finished with 10 points and
Leonardo Bettiol gathered 11 rebounds.
