ABILENE – Sam Houston State outscored ACU 24-5 to start the game Monday night and the Wildcats were never able to mount any kind of charge as the Bearkats walked out of Moody Coliseum with an 80-63 win over ACU in a Southland Conference men's basketball game.
The Wildcats' fourth straight loss after a 3-0 start to Southland Conference play drops them to 9-11 overall and 3-4 in the league. The Bearkats, meanwhile, improve to 15-5 and 7-1. ACU will be back in action Saturday at 6 p.m. when it takes on Lamar in Beaumont, followed by a 7 p.m. game next Monday at Houston Baptist.
The Bearkats opened the game by hitting six 3-pointers in the first 7:14 of the game, including two by Jabari Peters and one apiece from DeMarcus Gatlin, Kaheem Ransom, Aurimas Majauskas and Marquel McKinney. The closest ACU would get the rest of the first half was 14 points.
The Wildcats saw the Sam Houston State lead grow to 24 points early in the second half before ACU closed to within 14 points with 13:08 to play on a 3-pointer by
Harrison Hawkins and back-to-back jumpers from
Riley Payne. The last bucket by Payne brought ACU to within 57-43, and Hawkins later answered a Dakarai Henderson 3-pointer with a three-point play to make it 60-46 with 12:18 to play.
But the Bearkats were just too much for the Wildcats to handle as they steadily pulled away in the final seven minutes to eventually take the 17-point win.
Austin Cooke led the Wildcats with 15 points, while Hawkins added 13 and
Christian Albright had 10 points and six rebounds off the bench. Sam Houston State had five players in double figures, led by Henderson and Gatlin with 12 points apiece.
