ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats' 73-60 loss Thursday night to Utah Valley came down to a few deciding factors: the Wildcats' inability to sustain momentum, losing the rebounding battle to the Wolverines, and a lack of intensity to start the game near the top of the list.
However, the biggest reasons for ACU's loss at Moody Coliseum were Utah Valley's consistent ability to get to the free-throw line and the Wildcat's inability to score in the paint. The Wolverines made 32 trips to the charity stripe (making 20 and outscoring ACU by 12 points at the line), and the Wildcats were just 19 of 50 inside the paint (38 percent).
All those factors added up to Utah Valley by 13 in a win that clinched at least a share of the Western Athletic Conference championship and the likely No. 1 seed in next week's WAC Postseason Tournament.
The Wolverines now stand at 22-7 overall and 14-1 in the league, with one game remaining in the regular season: Saturday at Tarleton State, marking the final contest in Wisdom Gym. The Wildcats hold a record of 15-15 and 7-8 in the WAC and will host second-place Grand Canyon—a 90-68 victor over Utah Tech on Thursday night in Phoenix—at 3 p.m. in their last game of the regular season. A win on Saturday by the Wolverines would secure their fourth outright WAC championship; however, a loss combined with a victory by GCU would mean they share the title with the Antelopes. In that scenario, the Wolverines would still likely claim the No. 1 seed in the tournament due to WAC resume seeding.
The Wildcats can spoil the Antelopes' plans to share the title with a second straight home win over GCU. That would push ACU to 8-8, leaving them no worse than fourth in the final standings. The Wildcats hold the tiebreaker edge over Tarleton State (7-8) and Seattle (7-8), but not Cal Baptist (8-7). If the Wildcats and Lancers finish 8-8, CBU will be the No. 3 seed in the tournament, and ACU the No. 4 seed.
All of that will be resolved by Saturday evening after the final four games of the WAC regular season are played.
Until then, the Wildcats will ruminate on the many missed opportunities that cost them the chance to upset the Wolverines.
"We have to make layups," ACU head coach
Brette Tanner said. "But you have to credit Utah Valley for how they played inside. It was the same story at their place (a 64-53 ACU loss on Jan. 4). We got the ball in the paint but didn't finish the shots we usually make – same thing (Thursday night).
"We have to make free throws," he said. "We have to get to the free throw line (ACU was 8 for 13 from the stripe) and be more aggressive. I didn't think we were aggressive, especially early in the game. We missed some shots around the rim early in the first half and lost our aggressiveness."
While the Wildcats struggled to make anything in the paint consistently, the Wolverines had no such trouble. Utah Valley's first 18 shots were in the paint, and the Wolverines made 11 of them as they built a 30-11 lead over the Wildcats with 8:05 left in the first half.
But the Wildcats fought back, outscoring the Wolverines 18-6 over the final 7:40 of the first half to cut the halftime deficit to 36-29. Leo Bettiol scored 11 points in the run that got the Wildcats back in the game, and ACU's defense limited Utah Valley to just 1 for 9 shooting from the floor in the final 6:58 of the half.
"I'm not trying to turn this into a big positive, but we responded when they took that big lead," Tanner said. "That's a good sign heading into next week. The fact that I have a team that can take a punch and battle back is a testament to their toughness."
After UVU pushed its lead back to 10 points early in the second half, ACU got to within four points on two occasions, the last time coming with 14:08 left on a layup by Bettiol, who finished with 20 points and eight rebounds before fouling out late.
Then, the game turned in UVU's favor.
After an airball by UVU's Trevan Leonhardt gave ACU the ball, point guard Nasir Degruy missed a 3-pointer with 13:21 to play, and 30 seconds later, Leonhardt scored on a second-chance layup after Ethan Potter came up with the offensive rebound of Dominick Nelson's miss. That pushed the lead to 44-38, and 25 seconds later – after a hook shot by Bettiol went halfway down and out – a Nelson fast-break layup pushed the Wolverines' lead back to 46-38 with 12:26 to play.
The Wildcats had one push left and made it with less than eight minutes left. Trailing 57-48,
Bradyn Hubbard –sensational with 17 points, nine rebounds, one assist, and one steal – hit a 3-pointer on a pass from Bettiol, cutting the lead to 57-51 with 7:19 to play. But Bettiol picked up his fourth foul on a charge with 6:47 left and immediately went to the bench.
Utah Valley took advantage of his absence by outscoring ACU 9-3 for 2:09 before Bettiol returned. The lead was 66-54 and wouldn't drop below 10 points again.
"They played like a team that wanted to win a share of the conference title," Tanner said of Utah Valley. "We knew we would get their best shot, and we took their best shot, rallied from it, and came up short. But this is still the same team that's won seven of our last 10 games and got in a great position going into the conference tournament.
"We're still playing good basketball," he said. "Just because we lost (Thursday) doesn't mean the season's over. I like our chances if we play those guys next week and are in another close battle."
