The Wildcats trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half, but senior center Kolton Kohl’s last-second tip-in shot completed the comeback over Stephen F. Austin, 63-61 Wednesday night.
“I thought our guys showed a ton of toughness tonight,” said head coach Joe Golding. “When you get in March, it doesn’t look pretty at times. We found us again tonight, and we got back to guarding the basketball well.”
While the Wildcats earned a bounce-back win after falling to Central Arkansas Saturday, Golding said turnovers were an issue.
“We didn’t take care of the ball,” Golding said. “We talked about taking care of the basketball, and they won the turnover battle.”
Kohl finished with 11 points and five rebounds. His biggest score coming just before the buzzer.
“We let Reggie [Miller] go one-on-one,” Kohl said. “It was really good defense by them and fell short, and I put myself in the right position to make a play.”
While the Wildcats had an opportunity to call timeout on the final possession of the game, Golding decided to let his team create an opportunity for themselves.
“It’s so hard to run set plays because of their pressure, so we thought we’d let Reggie pull the last shot,” Golding said. “The shot doesn’t go in, and Kolton puts it up and in. We were going to let our guys play in that situation.”
Senior guard Coryon Mason posted 15 points on 4-for-7 shooting but left the game late in the second half after falling awkwardly on his ankle. Golding expects him to be available Saturday for the final game of the season and junior forward Clay Gayman to return for postseason play after recovering from a concussion.
“He’ll be fine,” Golding said. “It’s just a sprained ankle, and he’ll be ready to go. Clay is day-by-day, so I would think by Katy he’ll be good to go, but you never know.”
With the win, ACU (20-4, 12-2 SLC) notches its third-consecutive 20-win season for the first time in program history and keeps its hopes alive for a Southland Conference Regular Season Championship.
The Wildcats currently sit third in the standings behind Sam Houston State and Nicholls. In order to finish first, ACU will need a win Saturday vs. Incarnate Word and losses from Sam Houston State and Nicholls to finish their seasons.
“We’ll control what we can control; What we can control right now is Incarnate Word,” Golding said. “We’ll take whatever seed we can get, and we’ll go to Katy and give it our best shot.”
