ABILENE – The Wildcats finished out Tuesday nights' game hitting 8 of 10 free throws in the last minute of the game to defeat Texas A&M-Kingsville, 79-72. It was the first win in South Division play for ACU ending a five game losing streak.
After losing a heartbreaker on Saturday ACU recovered shooting 75% from the free throw line going 24 for 32, the highest since a win on January 4, against UTPB when the Wildcats shot 78%. ACU moves to 8-13 overall and 1-5 in the LSC while they are now tied with the Javelinas who fall to 11-10 and 1-5 in LSC play.
Led by junior Dustin Heiman, who finished 11 of 13 including eight of ten in the last two minutes gave ACU their first win in five tries against the LSC South Division.
“We have taken some tough losses, but with a great group of guys we are playing really well right now. After digging ourselves a hole we are playing good and that showed down the stretch finishing out the game tonight,” said head coach Jason Copeland.
After two outstanding performances from Eddie Thompson which earned him LSC Player of the Week honors, ACU got solid play from two other Wildcats in Heiman and Girodan Cole. Heiman finished with 16 points and was nearly perfect on the night going 2 for 2 from the field and making his only three pointer on the night. His only misses came from the charity stripe in the last minute as the Wildcats closed out the Javelinas. Cole finished with 16 points and tied a season high five steals before fouling out.
The Wildcats played great defense which got better in the second half as they held the Javelinas to under 40% from the field. ACU also used 37 points off the bench, as Heiman played in only his second game since coming back from an injury that saw him miss five games. It was also the first game back for Preston Davis who was coming back from an illness after missing the last two games.
A&M-Kingsville placed four of their five starters in double figures, but got little help elsewhere only getting 13 points from their bench. Flavio Milam had a game high 19 points in the Javelinas loss.
ACU starts the second half of South Division play as they travel to Kingsville on Saturday. Tipoff between the Wildcats and Javelinas is scheduled for 4 p.m.