ARLINGTON — ACU head coach Brette Tanner admitted Saturday afternoon that his team had not played well Thursday night in a 15-point loss at Tarleton State. The Wildcats, he said, might have lost some confidence with their second-half performance.
But Saturday afternoon at the College Park Center, the Wildcats came out swinging, weathered a furious UT-Arlington comeback, and delivered the knockout in the final two minutes in a huge 70-59 Western Athletic Conference victory.
With two games left in the regular season, the Wildcats are 15-14 overall and 7-7 in the WAC, tied for third with Tarleton State (12-17 and 7-7). Cal Baptist and Seattle are tied for fifth at 6-7, and both played late Saturday; CBU at last-place Utah Tech, and Seattle at home against second-place Grand Canyon. The teams from third through seventh in the league could still finish anywhere in that range in the final standings.
ACU will finish the regular season next week at home by hosting league-leading Utah Valley (21-7 and 13-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday, and then taking on second-place Grand Canyon (21-6 and 11-2 going into Saturday night's game) at 3 p.m. Saturday. Two wins would almost ensure ACU would earn a top-four seed in the upcoming Hercules Tire WAC Postseason Tournament in Las Vegas, while a split could still get the Wildcats a top-four seed. Two losses would leave ACU at 7-9, and a top-four spot would be left up to the results of teams below them in the standings.
None of that was on the minds of the Wildcats midway through the second half Saturday as they watched UTA whittle away at a 14-point ACU lead. The Wildcats started strong, jumping to a 14-3 lead in the game's first seven minutes as the Mavericks struggled to find their shooting touch. The lead dwindled to as little as four points (27-23) before settling in at a nine-point ACU lead at halftime (32-23).
The Wildcats scored the second half's first five points, capped by a Quion Williams three-point play that gave ACU a 37-23 lead just 1:07 into the half. But the Mavericks – led by their probable all-conference center Lance Ware – fought back and got within 41-39 on a Ware jumper in the paint with 11:11 to play. Raysean Seamster tied the game on UTA's next possession, and the teams started over with 10 minutes left.
The Wildcats won the final 10 minutes, but it wasn't easy. ACU pushed out to leads of five and six points leads before the Mavericks tied the game again at 54-54 with 4:19 to play on a Ware layup. Tied again at 56-56 with 3:55 left in the game on another Ware layup, the Wildcats went on the run that put the game away.
Bradyn Hubbard buried a clutch 3-pointer at the 3:43 mark to give ACU a 59-56 lead, and the Mavericks would not catch up from that point. Hubbard hit two free throws at the 2:52 mark to make it a 61-56 game before the Mavs got a bucket and a free throw from Ware to cut it to 61-59 with 2:14 to play.
From there, Rich Smith and Williams finished off the Mavericks.
Smith hit a layup at the 1:49 mark to push the lead to 63-59, and Williams converted another three-point play with 52 seconds left to make it 66-59. Smith then hit a pair of free throws with 45 seconds left and again with 29 seconds to play to make it a 70-59 final.
While the Wildcats padded their lead, the Mavericks couldn't find the bucket. UTA struggled to find its shooting touch all day, hitting just 24 of 58 shots from the field (41 percent), including a meager 5 of 25 (20 percent) from 3-point range. The Mavericks also hurt themselves by hitting just 6 of 14 (42.9 percent) from the free-throw line.
In the final minutes, they were 1 for 5 from the field (0 for 3 from 3-point range) and 1 for 5 from the free-throw line. While the Wildcats' defense had nothing to do with the Mavericks' poor free-throw shooting, it did contribute to their trouble from the field, especially late.
Typically a stout man-to-man defensive team, ACU mixed in some zone throughout the game and showed it again late to pull away for the win.
"My coaching staff made a great suggestion to go with some zone," Tanner said. "Our defensive plan was to limit their effectiveness behind the 3-point line (5 of 25), even though we knew that it might lead to Ware having a career game (24 points and 11 rebounds). But it was really effective when we had to go small (after Leo Bettiol and Hubbard fouled out). And we made our free throws down the stretch, which was huge."
ACU was 19 for 21 from the free throw line (90.5 percent, the team's best performance from the line all season and 20 percentage points better than its season average (70.9).
The Wildcats also got the ball out of the hands of UTA point guard Brody Robinson, who had 12 points and 10 assists in the Mavericks' 79-76 overtime win in Abilene on Jan. 25. Saturday afternoon in Arlington, he scored just six points and only had three assists.
Meanwhile, all five Wildcat starters scored in double figures, led by Hubbard with 18, Williams with 13, Hunter Jack Madden with 12, Bettiol with 12, and Smith with 10. Smith was terrific with nine assists, five rebounds, one block, and one steal against no turnovers in 32 minutes. Hubbard had eight rebounds, Williams six, and Madden, Smith, and Nasir DeGruy five as ACU dominated the boards, winning the battle 40-33.
And now they've put themselves in a position to make a run at a top-four seed going into the tournament.
"We did what you're supposed to do on a road trip: get a split," Tanner said. "We didn't play Thursday, and some of that is a credit to Tarleton. We lost some confidence in the second half, and I worried about how we would play (Saturday). But we had a good practice (Friday) and came out swinging (Saturday), which got us going. A lot of teams would have folded if they had lost a 14-point lead, but our guys didn't blink.
"Now we've got two big home games to finish the regular season, and we know the challenge of playing those two teams," Tanner said. "Both of them are playing for a regular-season conference championship. But we've got goals, too, and we're also playing for something. So we'll get to work (Sunday) and be ready to go on Thursday."
