ACU Men Knocked Off By Tarleton State
By: Eric Boynton
Updated: December 8, 2012
STEPHENVILLE - The ACU Wildcats set a modern-day
school record for fewest field goals in a half Saturday night as they hit just
two in the decisive opening 20 minutes of a 64-50 loss to Tarleton State in Lone
Star Conference men's basketball action at Wisdom Gym.
The
Wildcats' 17th straight regular-season loss against Tarleton State in
Stephenville dropped them to 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the LSC as they dropped
their third straight conference game. ACU opened league play with a 59-58 win
at West Texas A&M on Nov. 28, but haven't been able to build on that
momentum.
ACU
lost a pair of two-point games prior to the game against the Texans, but
Saturday's game was never that close.
Much
like last year's game in Stephenville when the Texans jumped out to a 25-10 lead
in the first 12 minutes of the game, ACU found itself in a big early hole. The
Texans climbed all over the Wildcats, jumping out to a 21-5 lead in the first 12
minutes and never looked back.
ACU's
first field goal of the game came on a jumper by Parker Wentz at the 15:33 mark
of the game to cut Tarleton's lead to 9-4. ACU wouldn't hit another field goal
until Eric Lawton hit a jumper with 2:22 left in the first half to make it a
36-12 game.
The
Wildcats hit just 2 of 25 shots from the field in the first half (8.0 percent),
including going 0 for 6 from 3-point range. ACU has struggled at the free throw
line all season, but actually went 8 for 10 from the charity stripe in the first
half.
Senior
center Steven Werner was 0 for 8 from the field in the first half, while Elliott
Lloyd was 0 for 4 and Lawton 1 for 7.
The
Wildcats opened the second half with an 18-2 run that got them to within 40-30,
and they had a chance on a couple of occasions to cut the lead to single digits,
but they never got the Texans' lead below 10 points in the second
half.
Lawton
led the Wildcats' early second-half burst with 12 points, and it was his jumper
with 12:19 to play that pulled ACU to within 10 points at 40-30. But the Texans
outscored 24-20 the rest of the way to improve to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in LSC
play.
Lawton
led the Wildcats with 15 points (12 in the second half), while Wentz had nine
points. After shooting 8.0 percent in the first half, the Wildcats shot 53.8
percent (14 of 26) in the second half.
