BOZEMAN, Montana – Four ACU Wildcats scored in double figures Monday night as ACU picked up its fourth win of the season with an 82-74 victory over Southern Miss in the Basketball Travelers Invitational at Worthington Arena on the campus of Montana State University.
The Wildcats are 4-2 on the season and will play the hosts from Montana State (2-4) at 8 p.m. (Abilene time) in the final game of the invitational. After an earlier win against Texas State and Monday’s win over Southern Miss, the Wildcats are now 2-0 against teams from the Sun Belt Conference.
ACU maintained control throughout the game, leading by at least five points over the final 38 minutes. The Golden Eagles managed to cut the ACU lead to 59-52 with 10:59 to play, but ACU quickly responded with a 7-1 run over 80 seconds, extending their lead to 13 (66-53) with 9:38 left.
Southern Miss had one last push to get back in the game, and it came with less than five minutes to play. After Quion Williams hit a layup for the Wildcats to make it 72-64 with 4:50 left, Neftali Alvarez hit a layup for the Golden Eagles at the 4:22 mark to cut the lead to 72-66. Less than 30 seconds later, Alvarez hit the second of two free throws to cut the ACU lead to 72-67 with 3:54 to play.
But the Wildcats responded.
After Denijay Harris missed two free throws for Southern Miss that could have cut the lead to 72-69 with 3:13 left, Leonardo Bettiol took a feed from Hunter Jack Madden and hit a layup to push the lead back to seven points (74-67) with 2:55 left. Madden drew a foul less than 20 seconds later and hit two free throws for a nine-point lead (76-67), and the closes Southern Miss would get the rest of the way was five points (79-74 on a 3-pointer by Harris with 17 seconds to play. But Madden went 3 for 4 from the line in the final 15 seconds to ice the win for the Wildcats.
Each team was hot from the field in the first half, scoring a combined 89 points. ACU took a 49-40 lead into halftime behind 12 points from Bettiol. The Wildcats trailed once at 4-2 with 18:42 left in the half. However, Bettiol answered to tie the game, and ACU didn’t trail the rest of the night.
The Wildcats’ lead hit double figures for the first time with 9:46 left in the first half when Bradyn Hubbard’s 3-pointer gave the Wildcats a 28-18 lead over the Golden Eagles. The lead fluctuated between 7 and 12 points the rest of the half, with ACU taking a comfortable 12-point lead with 4:21 left in the half on a pair of free throws by Williams.
Hubbard – a first-team junior college All-American last year at Connors State – had his best game as a Wildcat, finishing with 16 points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes. He was 6 of 9 from the field (2 of 2 from 3-point range) and had one steal. He led an ACU bench unit that scored 37 points, with Cade Hornecker adding 10 points and two rebounds and Rich Smith scoring nine points, dishing out five assists, picking up two rebounds, and collecting three steals.
Bettiol finished with 17 points, four rebounds, one block, and two steals, while Madden had 13 points and Williams nine points.
