The men’s basketball was in action Tuesday night in Moody Coliseum against Charleston Southern University and played a close game resulting in a 66-65 loss.
The Wildcats put together a strong performance in the first half as they led 34-22 going into halftime. ACU would build on the halftime lead early in the second half after sophomore Hayden Farquhar’s layup made it 52-35 with 12:35 to play in the game.
But at that point the Buccaneers rallied outscoring the Wildcats 17-2 over the next four minutes and cutting the lead to two at 54-52 with 8:31 left in the game. ACU would respond, pushing the lead back to five with just under three minutes to play. CSU edged ACU 14-11 the remainder of the game to earn its second victory of the season.
The men almost matched their first half scoring output with 31 points in the second half, however, the Buccaneers scored an impressive 44 points, which was enough to edge the Wildcats.
Head coach Golding said the team struggled to do what earned them the lead early in the game, as the game progressed.
“We’ve got a young team and we didn’t play very well or coach very well down the stretch,” Golding said. “We let a 17-point lead get away from us by not continuing to do the things that got us the lead.”
Sophomore forward/guard Jaren Lewis was able to impress again tonight as he put up 18 points, making seven of his eight shots and four of his eight free throws.
Sophomores Hayden Howell, Jalone Friday and Jaylen Franklin also produced well in the points column scoring 12 a piece.
Senior Jovan Crnic led the team in assists with five while Friday got the most rebounds with seven.
For the Buccaneers, sophomore guard Armel Potter led his team in points with 26 while freshman guard Christian Keeling added another 20.
Keeling also led in rebounds with seven while junior guard Cortez Mitchell dished out the most assists with five.
The loss is ACU’s first of the season, as it falls to 2-1 and Charleston Southern moves to .500 at 2-2.
This was the first of two meetings this season for the teams, ACU will travel to Charleston in a rare same-season rematch, Dec. 3.
But first the Wildcats are scheduled to travel to Norman to take on the University of Oklahoma Friday.
