The men’s basketball team started its season off Tuesday evening in Moody against Arlington Baptist and won convincingly 107-54.
ACU was in the driver’s seat each half scoring 52 in the first and 55 in the second. They held the Patriots to 25 in the first half and 29 in the second.
It was a slow start for the men as they found themselves down 9-7 through the first five minutes of the game. At the 15:09 mark of the first half, however, redshirt junior guard B.J. Maxwell hit a three-pointer and his team caught fire from there.
Up to the 8:59 mark, the Wildcats went on a 25-2 run to take a 32-11 lead. The men kept their lead in the twenty-point range for the rest of the first and went into halftime up 52-25.
In the second half, they came right out of the gate with an 11-0 run and claimed a 38-point lead. From there, ACU eventually cruised to a 51-point lead at the 8:36 mark of the second half after 22-9 run.
The Wildcats finished most of the game being up by at least 50 points and picked up the lopsided 107-54 win to begin their season.
Senior forward Jaren Lewis said he was ready to face the first opponent of the year.
“It felt great to be out there finally playing someone else,” Lewis said. “We had a long offseason and were really ready to get back to playing games.”
Lewis led his team in scoring with 18 points on the night. Maxwell and freshman forward Joe Pleasant followed close behind with 14 points each.
With Pleasant putting up double-digit points and other bench players contributing to the win, Lewis said the team will be strong in depth all season.
“We feel like our reserves can really help a lot this year,” Lewis said. “They will be key to our success going forward. They play hard and bring a lot of athleticism to the table for us.”
Overall, the men shot 62.1 percent from the field and were 11-23 on three-pointers giving them a 47.8 percentage.
ACU will stay at home to host Arkansas State for its second game Friday at 7:30 p.m. The game will also be a purple out and fans will be encouraged to wear their Wildcat colors.
