DALLAS -- The ACU Wildcats suffered through a rough shooting night Wednesday night, blowing a 12-point second half lead en route to an 80-74 loss to Dallas Baptist at The Burg Center in men's non-conference basketball action.
The Wildcats' fifth straight loss drops them to 4-7 on the season, while the Patriots' second win of the season over ACU pushes them to 5-4. ACU will return to action Friday (New Year's Day) at 3 p.m. when it hosts York College (Neb.) in a non-conference game.
ACU trailed by as much as six points in the first half, but rallied to take as much as a nine-point lead late in the first half before settling for a 39-31 halftime lead. The Wildcats then pushed the advantage to 45-33 early in the second half on a pair of free throws and a jumper by
Abby Kabba and a jumper by
Kevin White.
The Wildcats still led 50-40 with 13:35 to play after
Preston Davis buried a 3-pointer on a feed from
Vladimir Gavranic. But that's when DBU started a 20-9 run over the next 7:48 that propelled the Patriots into the lead at 60-59 with 5:47 left in the game. B.J. Dale buried a jumper at that point to end the run and give his team the lead.
But
Riley Lambert responded with a 3-pointer at the 5:14 mark to give the Wildcats their last lead of the night at 62-60. After Arnie Lewis tied the game at 62-62 with a jumper at the 4:56 mark, Bryan Baumann gave his team a lead it wouldn't relinquish when he buried a 3-pointer with 4:31 to play to make it 65-62.
The Patriots sealed the game at the 3-point line and the free throw line in the game's final 94 seconds.
After Gavranic hit a jumper to cut the ACU deficit to 70-68 with 1:53 to play, Jordan McGowen answered with a 3-point er at the 1:34 mark to make it a 73-68 DBU lead.
McGowen then hit another 3-pointer with 50 seconds to play to push the lead to 76-68. That 3-pointer came after ACU missed two 3-pointers and two free throws on one possession.
Baumann was 3 for 4 and Eddie Gloviak 1 for 2 from the free throw line in the final 16 seconds to seal it for the Patriots.
ACU -- which shot 46.9 percent (15 of 32) in the first half -- struggled in the second half, making just 34.1 percent of its shots (14 of 41). The Wildcats struggled from beyond the arc all night, hiting just 7 of 27 shots (25.9 percent). And the Wildcats' season-long free throw woes continued as they hit just 9 of 19 (47.4 percent) from the charity stripe.
Eddie Thompson led the Wildcats with 15 points, while
Preston Davis, White and Gavranic each had 10 points apiece.
