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Danny Kaspar knew Abilene Christian was dangerous.
The Southland Conference champions made their NCAA tournament debut last season, receiving an automatic berth as a No. 15 seed. The Wildcats beat UNLV (2-5) by 14 points on Nov. 18. Texas State only beat the Rebels by seven two days later.
It didn’t matter, though. Kaspar knew the Bobcats were in for a trap game.
“I told my assistants, I said, ‘I don't care what I say, (the players aren’t) gonna believe me. They’re not gonna believe this team’s gonna be tough,’” Kaspar said. “I knew they were going to be good, but we had some guys not ready to go tonight.”
Texas State (5-2) narrowly survived a rough first half Monday night to escape with a 61-56 victory over ACU (2-4) inside Strahan Arena.
“(The Wildcats) somewhat, kind of play like us a little bit. They're a gritty team, able to get in the passing lanes. They want to disrupt the offense, take away the things you do well and that's what they do,” senior guard Nijal Pearson said. “So, we knew coming into the game it was gonna be like that. I don’t want to say we weren't ready for it, but at the same time I don't think we expected them to play that hard. They came playing really hard.”
The hosts were held scoreless in the opening six minutes of the game. The visitors blocked three of the maroon and gold’s first five shots. The Bobcats next three possessions all resulted in turnovers.
Junior forward Isiah Small was fouled on a layup attempt at the 13:40 mark and awarded two free throws. He missed them both.
Sophomore guard Mason Harrell finally broke the ice with a backdoor cut for an inside score, keeping the lead within striking distance at 7-2. Fellow sophomore guard Caleb Asberry heated up with 10 points in the final 13 minutes of the half, but the team still trailed 36-30 by halftime.
“They just got in the passing lanes, pressuring the ball,” Kaspar said. “I think when we play hard, we can be very good. But we're not that great an offensive team that — we have to defend well to win games. And we did not, they had 36 points at halftime. I don't know of anybody who had even close to that in the first three games we played here.”
Texas State still found itself trailing 39-35 when senior center Eric Terry picked up his third foul at the 16:12 mark of the second half. Redshirt sophomore center Alonzo Sule replaced him in the lineup and injected the team with a new energy.
“I feel like (I brought) just effort,” Sule said. “You know, just going out there playing hard, trying to get my teammates involved, trying to just pick each other up like, ‘Come on, we're still in this. Come on, let's turn up.’”
Sule dunked the ball on a feed from Small two possessions after he checked in. He hit another shot from the paint, then set a hard screen to free Harrell for a bucket on the next two trips down. The Houston native followed it up with a baseline jumper from the left side and hit a free throw to tie the game up at 44-44.
The center checked back out of the game with the score still tied at 46-46 with 9:55 on the clock. Pearson hit the go-ahead jumpshot 54 seconds later to give the Bobcats their first lead of the night. The hosts stayed in front the rest of the way to secure the 61-56 victory.
“Sule, his energy, it changed the whole game when he came in,” Pearson said. “And that's what he does, he plays hard, finishes around the rim, rebound around the rim. His whole aura, his impact on the game, I mean, that's what won us the game. You're not gonna see it if you look at the stat sheet. But if you were out there and you watched that game, Sule brought us home tonight.”
It wasn’t a typical night for Texas State. The team entered the game outrebounding its opponents by an average of 5.7 boards per game and shooting .773 percent from the free throw line, but lost the rebounding battle to the Wildcats, 40-30, and hit just 8-of-17 from the charity stripe on Monday. Pearson led the team with 16 points going 6-14 from the floor, followed by Asberry, Harrell and Sule with 10 each.
Kaspar expects the numbers to return to normal when the team faces Hartford at home on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. But he also expects his players to believe him when he says they’re going up against a tough team.
“It's gonna happen now and then if your guys aren't ready to play. And it happened and, yeah, it concerns me. But we'll get after them about that,” Kaspar said. “They'll not want to see me if they play like this two times in a row. They'll really be fearful of the next day. Because I'm going to work their tail ends off if they get outrebounded by 10 again.”
