After winning its last two games to improve to 6-3 on the season, the men’s basketball team will face a former Western Athletic Conference opponent in New Mexico State University on Saturday. The Aggies currently have a record of 6-1.
ACU has faced NMSU eight times previously, with the most recent meeting happening last year in New Mexico, where ACU won 78-70.
The Wildcats are coming off a 71-63 road victory against Pepperdine on Tuesday. The team’s leading scorer was Bradyn Hubbard, senior forward from Tulsa, Oklahoma, with 15 points in 20 minutes.
Hubbard has averaged 16.4 points per game in the team’s nine games. Despite leading the team in scoring, Head Coach Brette Tanner wants to see Hubbard take the next step to becoming an elite player.
“He gets fatigued, and then he makes bad decisions,” Tanner said. “And he’s either got to get out of the game, or he’s got to be able to fight through some of that fatigue. And that’s the next step for him from being a good player to being an elite-level player.”
Two other Wildcats scored in double digits along with Hubbard: Yaniel Rivera, junior guard from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, with 14 points, and Rich Smith, senior guard from the Bronx, New York, who had 10 points off the bench.
Bench points were a key part of the team’s victory, outscoring Pepperdine 28-11.
With four games left before conference play begins, the team sits at 6-3 with a 4-0 home record.
Tanner said his team needs to get better offensively over the next three games. Currently, the team is scoring 73.4 PPG while shooting 45% from the field and 32% on three pointers.
“Tuesday was the best offensively we’ve played all year,” he said. “Maybe not our highest scoring, but we were hitting the right reads, we were making decisions, we were sharing the ball, so I hope that’s a good sign for how we’re moving forward.”
In Tuesday’s game, the Wildcats shot 44% from the field and 36% from three.
Saturday’s game looks to be a defensive battle as both teams rank in the top 50 in scoring defense nationwide. ACU allows 65 PPG to opponents, putting them at No. 34, and NMSU gives up 64 PPG, ranking them at No. 21.
After Saturday’s game, the Wildcats will begin a three-game road trip when they will face No. 2 Arizona, No. 9 BYU and Texas Southern University. Including NMSU, the next three opponents have a combined 20-2 record.
