Turnovers and poor shooting plagued the Wildcats on Saturday night, as ACU dropped to 1-9 in the LSC South Division. The Javelinas defended their home court in Kingsville to defeat the Wildcats 71-65.

“I think we lost because we didn’t give 100 percent for the whole game,” guard Preston Davis said. “We would play hard for parts of the game, but then not play hard at some points.”

The Wildcats started off well as they led for most of the first half. The Javelinas would rally back at the end of the half to take a 34-31 lead into halftime.

Kingsville would never relinquish its halftime lead as they opened up the game in the second half. After falling behind by as much as 12 the Wildcats would rally and cut the deficit to four with the final minute of the game. However, the rally would come up just short as the Javelinas earned the six-point victory.

“I thought we played hard. We didn’t take care of the ball like we should,” Head Coach Jason Copeland said. “I think we ran out of gas in the second half. We had a couple guys out that were normally in our lineup and we got worn out in the second half.”

The Wildcats committed 25 turnovers in the game and shot 34.6 percent from the field. This was ultimately the difference in the game as the Wildcats fell just short Saturday night.

Davis led the Wildcats and all scorers with 17 points in the game. Zach Williams and Marcus Washington added 12 points and 10 points respectively.

The loss drops the Wildcats to 9-13 overall and 1-9 in the division, while the Javelinas improve to 8-14 overall and 3-7 in the division.  ACU played in a home game Tuesday night against Incarnate Word. The game was moved over to Kimbrell Arena at McMurry University due to Moody Coliseum hosting Sing Song rehearsals Tuesday night. The results of the game were not available in time for publication.

Both Desmond Woodberry and Alex Richman missed Saturday’s game due to injury.

“When you are in that kind of injury situation you need to have other guys step up and make some plays. We weren’t able to make the plays, but I felt that our guys played really hard,” Copeland said.

The Wildcats will return to action Saturday, as they travel to Portales, N.M. to take on the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds. The Wildcats will tip off at 9 p.m. Saturday night.