ACU (16-18, 10-10) saw its season come to an end on Wednesday, when the Wildcats fell in the quarterfinals of the Colleginsider.com postseason tournament, losing to conference rival Tarleton (25-9, 16-4) 86-59. 

The Wildcats entered the game coming off of a win from the day before, taking down Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 73-63. The Wildcats had lost both regular season games to the Texans this year, however were able to keep both matchups fairly close. 

The Wildcats earned the first bucket of the game from a layup from sophomore forward Leonardo Bettiol. Senior guard Hunter Jack Madden would hit a three-pointer to give the Wildcats a 5-4 lead, but it would be the last time the Wildcats would be up all game. 

Tarleton began to build itself a lead slowly but surely and found themselves up ten points at the twelve-minute mark of the first half. The Wildcats tried to stay in the game and a last-second three-pointer from senior forward Cameron Steele to end the half put the Wildcats down 12 at 37-25. 

Unfortunately, the Wildcat’s first-half struggles would carry over, as ACU struggled to string together stops as Tarleton would build up its lead into the twenties and cruise for the remainder of the game. 

After shooting 64.52% from the field in the second half, Tarleton would finish the game with a 27-point victory, taking down the Wildcats 86-59. 

Bettiol led the team with 14 points to go along with eight rebounds and sophomore guard Nassir DeGruy also finished in double figures with 11. 

The Wildcats finished the season with a 16-18 overall record and a .500 conference record of 10-10.