Game Thread - @ Abilene Christian
For the 2nd straight Saturday the Bobcats are facing a private school Southland team on the road as they head up to Abilene to face ACU at 4pm Saturday in Moody Coliseum.
TXST is sitting at 5-4 on the year, coming off a 50 point win against D3 McMurry Wednesday night in San Marcos. TXST lost on the road to Houston Baptist last Saturday though in what was easily the worst team performance of the young season. With just a few weeks until conference play, this team has a long way to go match the level of play they showed in the Sun Belt a year ago.
The Bobcats have been marred with injuries so far this season. Shooting Guard Isaiah Gurley has missed 4 games due to a groin injury, but has played in the last couple games, albeit not at 100% I'm sure. Power Forward Nedja Prijovic is battling tendonitis and hasn't dressed out for the last two games. There's also an illness going around that kept freshman Shelby Adams out of a game and limited Tyler Blount significantly on Wednesday. We still haven't seen what this team can do when completely healthy, hopefully we're getting there. The only one I'm not sure on if they're active tonight is Prijovic. Alex Peacock has gotten significant experience in his absence at least.
ACU is 6-3 on the season, 3-3 against D1 competition.
Their 3 D1 wins are against Campbell (85-80), Bowling Green (88-83), and Air Force (62-58). Keep in mind the Bobcats opened the season with a 65-57 loss to Air Force. ACU also has non-D1 wins against Randall (ACCA/NCCAA), Howard Payne (D3), and Schreiner (D3). Their 3 losses are to Lipscomb (75-67), South Carolina Upstate (88-78), and Sun Belt member Arkansas State (83-69).
The Wildcats went 13-16 overall last year and 7-11 in the Southland, good for a 5-way tie for 8th. They were not invited to the SLC tournament and their season ended in the regular season. They were picked 7th in the preseason poll in the 13 team league this year.
They had two players named to the pre-season all-SLC 2nd team. The biggest threat is 6'9" sophomore center
Jalone Friday. Friday leads the team in scoring at 15.3 PPG and is 2nd in rebounding with 5.6 RPG. And here is a scary stat, despite being 6'9" and listed by ACU as a true center, he's their best 3-point threat at 41.2% on 14 made 3s this season. He was the Southland's freshman of the year last season and shot 45.6% from 3 last year. This guy looks really dangerous. If King/Terry are tasked with defending him they will have to defend the perimeter also, which I'm not sure either are capable of. If Peacock has to defend Friday he will be at a size disadvantage. Friday looks to be a huge matchup issue for us, and we struggled mightily against HBU's talented center last week.
The other all-SLC preseason player is 6'2" junior PG
Jaylen Franklin. Franklin is averaging 10.2 PPG and dishing out 5.0 APG. Franklin is not a 3-point threat whatsoever but runs the Wildcat offense well and does a good job setting up his teammates. Expect Marlin Davis to guard Franklin.
6'6" junior swingman
Jaren Lewis is another name to watch for ACU. He's 2nd on the team in scoring at 14.4 PPG and is the team's leading rebounder at 6.4 PPG. Pearson may get tasked with Lewis.
One last name to watch is 5'11" junior
Tevin Foster. The JUCO transfer is averaging 13.6 PPG and is shooting 34.3% from 3. Perfect matchup for Tyler Blount if he's healthy today as both are undersized shooting guards. Nottingham will likely defend Foster if Blount is still sick.
ACU hasn't beaten TXST since 1982 and the teams haven't played in Abilene since 1984. TXST is 40-17 all-time vs. ACU.
Looks like video feed should be available here:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/abilene/1300 the Zone in Austin and 89.9 KTSW will have the radio calls.
As is usually the case when we play Southland teams, I don't see any Vegas odds set for this game.
