The men’s basketball team traveled to San Antonio in hopes of sweeping the season series against Incarnate Word, and hammered the Cardinals 82-68.
The win marked the sixth conference victory of the year for the Wildcats, doubling their win total from the season before.
ACU lit up the scoreboard in the first half, hitting 60 percent of their shots from the field and battering Incarnate Word in the paint. The Wildcats headed to recess up by double digits, 41-23.
“After you beat somebody, it gives you some confidence going into the game the next time you play them,” assistant coach Jaret von Rosenburg said. “We just jumped on them early by getting some stops defensively that led to some easy baskets offensively and made the game easier for us.”
Golding’s team played aggressive defense in the first half as well, limiting Incarnate Word to only six made field goals in the opening 20 minutes.
The second half started with an Cardinal run to squeeze the ACU lead to six points before the Wildcats turned up the heat and begun a barrage on the basket.
A 10-0 run by ACU in the middle of the second half put the Cardinals in the rear view mirror for good. The ‘Cats lead by as many as 19 points in the second half, and ended up winning by 14.
Eric Lawton led ACU in scoring with 18 points. Steven Werner and Dosh Simms scored 14 apiece, and Parker Wentz chipped in 13 points of the bench. Simms also grabbed 13 rebounds to register another double double.
“We have been counted down from 135 days left for these seniors,” von Rosenburg said. “We just talk about a sense of urgency, and you can’t be happier for them fighting back and having good games. They want to finish the right way.”
ACU finished the game shooting 57.7 percent from the field and held the Cardinals to under 40 percent shooting, showing that they dominated at both ends of the floor.
ACU will play their final game of the season Saturday when they host Texas A&M Kingsville at 7:30 p.n. in Moody Coliseum. A win would give ACU a .500 record for the first time since 2007.
“We talked to the seniors this week and told them they can leave this program with seven conference wins, which is the best we have done in a long time,” head coach Joe Golding said.
“We can also go 13-13 with a win, which would be the second time since 1999 that we are .500 or better. I don’t think there is any doubt that this program is going in the right direction.”
