By Austin Gwin, Sports Writer
After ACU’s 80-64 loss to the Tarleton State Texans on Wednesday, the Wildcats were eliminated from postseason contention and will miss the postseason tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 years.
“We dug ourselves into a hole early,” head coach Jason Copeland said. “We didn’t shoot well at all. You are not going to win a conference game on the road by shooting 35 percent.”
The loss drops ACU’s conference record to 2-7 and overall record to 8-15. The Wildcats are sixth in the Lone Star Conference South Division, one place above last-place Eastern New Mexico.
The Wildcats, following a trend that has been set all season long, fell behind early. Tarleton State built a lead of 25-9 in the first 12 minutes of play behind great early 3-point shooting. In the first half, the Texans shot 6-11 behind the arc.
After falling behind by 16, the Wildcats went on a 13-0 run to close the gap to three, thanks to seven points from guard Dante Adams and six from forward Dejan Sencanski. But the Texans went into the locker room with a 36-28 lead.
ACU opened the second half shooting well, cutting the Texan lead to five at 40-35, but the Texans responded with a 16-6 run. The closest ACU would get again was eight points at 69-61. Tarleton State finished off the Wildcats with an 11-3 spurt to make it 80-64.
Adams finished with a game-high 19 points, while Sencanski had 13 points and seven rebounds. However, Adams shot only one of ten from the three-point line, and Sencanski shot only four of 13 from the field. Guard Ean Wagner was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 10 points. The Wildcats shot just 35.5 percent for the game to the Texans 51.6 percent, making just 6-27 from beyond the three-point line.
“We shot entirely too many threes,” Copeland said.
Tarleton State had four players score in double figures, a product of their balanced attack: guard Wale Ogunoye had 14, guard Cortney Hill finished with 12, guard Jeremiah Wilson had 11, and preseason all-American forward Eric Williams scored 10 points and finished with a game-high 14 rebounds.
ACU will play Midwestern State on Saturday at 4 p.m. at McMurry University because of Sing Song. The Wildcats will look to play the role of spoiler these last three games, as their season will end after the regular season.
“I can only hope we play like we have something to play for,” Copeland said. “There are six seniors on this team, and I hope they play hard these last few games.”
