money Abilene Christian turns up the heat in the second half while McMurry goes cold in crosstown basketball
When is a run in basketball not a run?
When it's a half.
After playing well most of the first half, McMurry gave up five points at the end to trail 50-30 at halftime. Then, Abilene Christian took over, forcing turnovers while the War Hawks made just one shot the first 14:10 of the second half. The Wildcats finished with a 104-46 victory in their second game back at Moody Center.
ACU improves to 2-1 while McMurry, after two close losses, slips to 0-3.
"We come into a game like this wanting to learn a lot about ourselves," McMurry coach Zach Pickelman said. "This is going to be the highest level of basketball team we'll play all year. We're not going to see pressure like this in our league, so we want to see how we handle pressure. Still do what we've been practicing the last six weeks.
"I thought for the first 15 minutes we were able to do some things. It snowballed in the second half and got out of hand."
What does ACU get out of playing a DIII team?
First, coach Brette Tanner said, it's a chance to play an in-town opponent in what would be called a "friendly" in soccer.
"The Pick-man is a great coach and he had his guys ready and they had some energy. They had some things ready for us that we weren't prepared for," Tanner said. "He has good players, two really good guards. I am thankful for Coach Pickelman to do this every year. If we're going to play some non-divisional games, we might as well play McMurry or Hardin-Simmons, right?
"Let's take care of each other."
But more importantly Tuesday, he wanted to see his team play better to open the second half. The Wildcats, he said, played well in the first half their first two games but not to start the final 20 minutes. That proved costly in a loss at Texas A&M.
"The first two games we played, we blew the doors off, even against A&M, early," Tanner said. "When we came out of halftime, we settled. We allowed the other team to score and we lost the first four minutes of the second half.
"So I told them at halftime, we're winning the first four minutes of the half. I don't care what we do. That's how we judge this game."
He had to like what he saw back at Moody. At the first stoppage of play, ACU had outscored McMurry 14-3 and that "run" went to 32-3 before McMurry hits its second shot.
It was Division I vs. Division III, but McMurry made the most of its chance to play the best team on its schedule. Halfway through the first half, ACU led only 21-18.
But then came an actual run, with the Wildcats scoring 14 straight points to take a 35-18 lead.
It was 45-30 after Rob Charles hit a shot in the lane. But ACU answered with a basket by its own No. 1, Damien Daniels and a three-point play by Cameron Steele for a 20-point lead at the break.
No one knew that a 3-pointer by C.J. LeBlanc at the 18:15 mark of the second half would be McMurry's lone field goal for a long time.
McMurry did not score again until there was 8:18 to play, on a free throw by Charles.
By then, ACU's lead had grown to 82-33 and Tanner, who uses a lot of players anyway, was getting everyone into the game.
Every player scored except the one who drew cheers when he entered the game with 3:11 to play. That was Joe Pleasant, who took the court for the first time this season. He has been on concussion protocol.
Pleasant made two free throws with 1.2 seconds to play when ACU upset Texas in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. He played one season at Wichita State.
Steele scored 15 points to lead ACU, which got 13 for Ali Abdou Dibba, 11 from Tobias Cameron and 10 from Daniels.
Tanner liked the play of JV Seat, who got almost 11 minutes on the court and six points. He said a few of starters weren't ready to play and put in subs who were. Like Seat.
"I've been telling him to wait, be ready, be ready, be ready. The time will come. He got a little bit of time against A&M. I put him in early tonight and the first thing he does is take a charge," Tanner said. "He's figured out with me the way to get in the game early, especially when you're young, is to play some defense."
Seat is a 6-foot-3 freshman guard from Edmond, Oklahoma.
ACU shot 60% from the field.
McMurry was led by Charles with 11 points and LeBlanc with 10. The War Hawks got 15 players in the game, with all but two taking a shot.
The War Hawks shot 31% for the game, but only 18% in the second half, hitting four of 22 shots.
ACU won the turnover battle 27-18, though the Wildcats' advantage was 13-12 at halftime.
Pickelman said he wants his team to mimic ACU's intense pressure on defense.
"Obviously, we're not there yet. We want to want to force some turnovers and run a lot and get some easy buckets," he said. "We were able to do some things in the first half.
"I liked our effort throughout the whole game, but I really liked the first half."
Pickelman said his team is learning - the War Hawks learn about executing late in the game is a two-point loss to Schreiner and five-point loss to Texas Lutheran in overtime.
ACU hits the road for the Las Vegas 4 tournament. First up is Wright State, which recently pulled off a 73-72, buzzer-beating win over Louisville. The Wildcats also will play Weber State and California-Riverside before stopping in Flagstaff, Arizona, for a game against Northern Arizona.
McMurry plays Friday against Austin College in Sherman.
NON-CONFERENCE
ACU 104, McMurry 46
McMurry .... 30 ... 16 − 46
Abilene Christian .... 50 ... 54 −104
MCMURRY (0-1) − Elias Garcia 2-3 0-0 5, Andrew Stevenson 1-1 0-0 2, C.J. LeBlanc 3-10 2-2 10, Remy Minor 1-7 1-1 3, Matt Pena 2-6 0-0 6, Elijah Lomas 1-2 0-0 3, Rob Charles 4-7 3-6 11, T.J. Hilliard 0-2 1-2 1, A.J. Lopez 1-3 1-2 3, Aaron Ramos 0-4 0-0 0, Cole Verdadero 0-3 0-0 0, Camil Ait Si Brahim 0-0 0-0 0, K.C. Udolisa 0-0 0-0 0, Aiden Parra 0-0 2-2 2, Zach Holden 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-49 10-15 46.
ABILENE CHRISTIAN (2-1) − Airion Simmons 4-7 1-1 9, Cameron Steele 5-6 3-3 15, Immanuel Allen 3-5 0-0 6, Tobias Cameron 4-5 3-3 11, Damien Daniels 4-5 1-2 10, Hunter Jack Madden 4-7 2-3 11, Ali Abdou Dibba 5-6 3-4 13, Yuot Gai 3-5 1-1 7, Ja'Sean Jackson 2-5 1-2 6, Muodubem Muoneke 1-6 0-0 2, Leonardo Bettiol 3-5 0-1 6, JV Seat 2-3 2-2 6, Colby Tanner 1-3 0-0 2, Joe Pleasant 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 41-68 17-22 104.
3-Point Goals − McMurry 6-22 (Pena 2-4, LeBlanc 2-6, Garcia 1-1, Lomas 1-1, Holden 0-1, Lopez 0-2, Minor 0-2, Ramos 0-2, Verdadero 0-3), Abilene Christian 5-17 (Steele 2-2, Daniels 1-1, Jackson 1-2, Madden 1-3, Dibba 0-1, Seat 0-1, Simmons 0-1, Allen 0-2, Muoneke 0-2, Tanner 0-2). Fouled Out − Garcia, Allen. Rebounds − McMurry 17 (Stevenson 4), Abilene Christian 44 (Cameron 7). Assists − McMurry 7 (Minor 3), Abilene Christian 22 (Cameron 6). Total Fouls − McMurry 18, Abilene Christian 18. A −1,643.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: ACU turns up the heat in the second half while McMurry goes cold
