Junior forward Joe Pleasant led the Wildcats to their eighth-consecutive win Wednesday night in the Teague Center with an 86-72 victory over Sam Houston State.

Pleasant scored a career-high 24 points and drained a game-sealing 3-pointer with just 49 seconds remaining.

“We just tried to work the ball inside, and if there was nothing there, we’d just pass back outside,” Pleasant said. “But we were really focussing on feeding inside, and we did that tonight.”

ACU (19-3, 11-1 SLC) moves into sole possession of first place in the Southland Conference standings with the win over Sam Houston State (17-7, 10-2 SLC).

“This was a late-February Southland Conference heavyweight fight,” said head coach Joe Golding. “We happened to make plays down the stretch, and we met a lot of adversity and our guys stuck in there to fight.”

Junior forward Clay Gayman left the game early in the first injury due to a head injury.

“We obviously want to be very precautionary with that,” Golding said. “I think our medical staff did a great job, but obviously our thoughts and prayers are with Clay right now.”

Later in the second half, senior guard Coryon Mason was ruled out for the remainder of the game due to cramping, but he isn’t expected to miss any time.

In the final minutes of the game, the Wildcats relied on Pleasant and sophomore forward Airion Simmons. Both big men scored the last two 3-pointers of the game to seal the victory.

“Joe [Pleasant] has been good for us all year,” Golding said. “He draws a lot of attention. As we’ve gone down the stretch, he’s been really disciplined.”

Simmons also finished with 12 points and five rebounds, including a perfect 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Up next, the Wildcats enter a two-game road trip to face Central Arkansas Saturday at 5 p.m.

“It’s a tough road trip for us,” Golding said. “We’ve got to recover, and then we’ve got to get to work. They’ve always played us really well.”