SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word men's basketball team played one of their best all-around games of the season on Saturday afternoon en route to dispatching Southland Conference rival Abilene Christian, 74-60 at the McDermott Center.

The Cardinals (9-7, 4-1) fell 8-0 in the first 1:07 of the game, but controlled play the final 38:53.  An 8-0 run tied the game at 10-10 with 12:41 left in the first half and a three-pointer by Kyle Hittle (New Braunfels/New Braunfels HS) with 4:08 remaining in the half gave UIW a lead they would not relinquish.  They put the game away with a 16-2 run that began with a tip-in by Shawn Johnson (New Orleans, LA/Alief Hastings HS) at the first half buzzer and finished with a driving layup by Jontrell Walker (Aurora, IL/West Aurora HS) four minutes into the second half.

UIW did not let the Wildcats (8-11, 3-3) get closer than 10 points over the final19 minutes of the game and led by 15-20 points for the majority of the second half.  The team had strong play up and down the lineup as they held ACU to 39.1 percent shooting from the floor and grabbed nine more rebounds than the visitors.

The Cardinals shot 59.2 percent from the field, made 4-of-13 from the foul line and were 12-of-17 at the free throw line.  Derail Green (Houston/Klein Forest HS) led the way with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor in just 24 minutes of action.  Hittle pumped in 19 points and had four assists as he moved into sixth place on the school's career scoring list with 1,358 points.  Johnson chipped in with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds while Mitchell Badillo (Houston/Cy Falls HS) nearly did the same thing with 10 points and eight boards.

The Wildcats went 18-of-46 from the field, made 9-of-20 three-point attempts and were 15-of-22 at the charity stripe.  Jovan Crnic led the team with 14 points and four three-pointers off the bench.  Leading scorer Jaylen Franklin tallied 12 points, but was only 2-of-12 from the field. 

The Cardinals are back in action on Monday night at 7 p.m. when they travel to McNeese State University.  The Cardinals played in special camouflage jerseys as part of Military Appreciation Day.
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