Men Beaten by ACU

January 3, 2008

ABILENE, Texas – Southwestern Oklahoma State University struggled in its efforts to keep pace with Abilene Christian’s high-octane offense and fell to the Wildcats by an 87-66 score in a men’s basketball game Thursday.

SWOSU, which began the game ranked No. 8 in the NCAA Division II poll, lost for the second time in three games. The Bulldogs are now 10-2 on the year and will play their next game Saturday at Angelo State.

ACU, much like the Bulldogs of last year, used an up-tempo style of play which left the Bulldogs playing catch up for most of the night. ACU leads the LSC in scoring averaging better than 85 points a game. The 87 points was the most allowed by the Bulldogs this year.

Nate Perry had 19 points to lead the Bulldogs in scoring while Kendall Smith added 12 points and Trevor Guy scored 10 for SWOSU.

Dejan Sencanski scored 25 points to lead the Wildcats who are off to their best start in eight seasons with a 9-2 record.

ACU broke open a tight ballgame midway through the second half hitting a string of successive shots. The Wildcats made 18-of-22 (81%) field goal attempts in the second half while stinging the Bulldogs with 56 points.

SWOSU stayed close and were within two points when Smith swished home a three-pointer to cut ACU’s lead to 48-46 with 12:29 to play. The Wildcats then went on a 16-3 charge and were up 64-49 with 5:36 to play.

The margin stayed above 12 points before ACU pushed it to 21 in the closing seconds.