Buzzer-Beater Ends ACU's Tournament

LAS VEGAS – A familiar nemesis ended the season for Abilene Christian on Wednesday as Stephen F. Austin hit a buzzer-beater for the 60-57 win in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
For the third time this season, an opponent hit a buzzer-beater to win the game or send it to a successful overtime period against the Wildcats.
 
It also was the third ACU-SFA game to be decided in the final moments. Matt Hayman hit a three-pointer for the Jacks at the buzzer to send the game to overtime in Abilene in December. Airion Simmons scored with five seconds left to beat SFA in Nacogdoches.
 
"What a game, right?" said ACU Head Coach Brette Tanner. "Typical Stephen F. Austin-ACU game. I could have told you it was going to finish that way for one of us before the game even started. I wish we had been on the other side of it."
 
The Wildcats had stormed back from a dismal first half and looked like they might take the lead with under three seconds left.
 
With the game tied and SFA in possession, AJ Cajuste attempted to drive the lane and the ball was deflected to Airion Simmons. Simmons drove toward the ACU basket but his shot was blocked by Jalil Beaubrun. Chrishawn Christmas got the rebound and found Cajuste in the front court. Cajuste flung up the three-pointer that went through as time expired.
 
The Wildcats struggled in the first half to find an offensive rhythm and trailed by as many as 11 points before ending the half on a 5-0 run, fueled by three points by Ali Abdou Dibba.
 
Down nine with two minutes off the second half clock, the Cats used a 13-1 run to take a 38-35 lead with 13 minutes to go. Dibba had eight points and Nasir DeGruy hit only his second three-pointer of the season in the scoring spree.
 
ACU led by as many as six points at the midway point of the second half but SFA came back and led 57-53 with 1:22 remaining.
 
Hunter Jack Madden hit four crunch-time free throws while SFA missed two on their end of the court to give ACU the tie with 13 seconds to go to set up the whirlwind finish.
 
Dibba led the Wildcats with 18 points, followed by Madden and Leonardo Bettiol with 12 each. Simmons had six points and a team-leading eight rebounds. Madden had six assists and two steals.
 
"I want to just say how proud I am of my team," said Tanner. "A month and a half ago, nobody in here would have told you they would have thought that we were going to be here. And these kids fought and fought and fought and won seven out of their last eight games in the regular season to put themselves in this position. We got here and we weren't satisfied. They fought their tails off today, down 11 and came back and took the lead and got a big stop there near the end."
 
ACU finished the season at 15-17.