By Daniel Johnson, Sports Editor

The ACU men’s basketball team still has a chance of making the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament, but it won’t be easy.

After finishing the first half of conference play with a 87-67 loss to Tarleton State on Saturday, the Wildcats are last place in the LSC South and will play first place Midwestern State on Wednesday.

“There’s still a lot of games to be played,” said head coach Jason Copeland. “A lot can happen.”

Little did happen for the Wildcats its first half of conference, as they dropped to 1-5 in LSC South play and 10-10 overall after losing to Tarleton. In addition to being ACU’s third straight conference loss, it was also the Wildcats’ seventh loss in its last eight games.

In comparison, Midwestern is 5-1 in the LSC South and won 13 of its last 14 games. Midwestern’s most recent win was a 107-96 shootout over Angelo State – the only LSC South team ACU has been able to beat.

“Wednesday will be a tough game on the road,” Copeland said.

The most recent star of the Midwestern Mustangs’ team is center Eric Dawson. The LSC South Player of the Week scored a career-high 30 points with 14 rebounds in the win over Angelo and led in scoring the first time Midwestern and ACU met this season.

Dawson scored a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds in the Mustangs’ 95-75 win over the Wildcats.

“We’ve got to get their big guys away from the basket,” Copeland said.

But Dawson isn’t the only offensive threat the Mustangs possess. In fact Midwestern has three more starters that have been named LSC South Player of the Week this season: guard Drew Coffman, guard Chad Rickett and Chris Davis.

Coffman, Rickett and Davis all average more than 25 points per game. And on top of all that Midwestern is 8-2 at home.

But despite the chips stacked against the Wildcats, Copeland is confident that his team can win on the road.

“In this league it doesn’t matter where you play teams,” Copeland said. “You just got to make sure you’re ready to go.”