In the opening game of the season, the Wildcats defeated Howard Payne 107-74 in Moody Coliseum on Monday.  The leading scorer for ACU was Leonardo Bettiol, junior forward from Roncade, Italy, with 22 points, one point short of his career high.

ACU dominated the entire game, leading from beginning to end. However, the Wildcats turned the ball over 33 times, a high number for a team that averaged only 12.8 turnovers per game last season.

“You know, usually it’s reversed,” said Head Coach Brette Tanner. “It’s 33-14 the other way, so this team still has a long way to go. We got a lot of new guys still trying to figure out how to play hard.”

Two areas the Wildcats excelled in were bench points and rebounds. They out-rebounded HPU 76-21 and had 52 bench points. The bench will be a big part of this team’s success this season because Tanner’s teams in the past have had only a seven- or eight-man rotation.

“I do think that we’re going to consistently be able to play 10 guys,” Tanner said. “That 10 may shift here and there every once in a while, depending on who we’re playing.”

During the offseason, the team added three freshmen and five players through the transfer portal. Seven of those players saw playing time in Monday’s game.

Quion Williams, junior guard from Jonesboro, Arkansas, was the team’s second-leading scorer with 20 points to go along with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Williams was a big addition to the team this year as he previously started at Oklahoma State University, averaging 7.5 points per game.

“He has embraced this, he has embraced our program, he is so happy to be here, and he wants so hard to do well, you know for this program, for this university,” Tanner said.

Another transfer that had a standout performance was Bradyn Hubbard, junior forward from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hubbard had a double-double with 12 points and a team-high 14 rebounds.

Two freshmen, Dontrez Williams, guard from Sikeston, Missouri, and Christian Alston, guard from Memphis, Tennessee, played Monday. Williams had 16 points, and Alston had nine points.

“Both of those freshmen are going to be elite players for us, I have no doubt. But they have to learn what this level is about – intensity,” Tanner said. “They’re learning how to play at this level, and to do that I’m going to be hard on them. That’s the only way to do it.”

Despite not having played many games together, the team was able to put together scoring runs, including a 19-0 run near the end of the first half. The run started after a timeout in which Tanner told his team to slow down, play with composure and get the ball to the rim.

On Saturday, the Wildcats will be back in Moody Coliseum to play Middle Tennessee State University, a team that ACU last saw in 2022. In that matchup, Middle Tennessee won 85-69.

“This is one of the best teams we’ve brought in non-conference,” Tanner said. “They’re really talented man. They’ve got some good players back that didn’t play for them last year that are like conference player of the year caliber players. So, we can’t go and toss the ball around like we did tonight or we’re going to be in trouble.”