ABILENE, Texas – The University of the Incarnate Word men's basketball team concludes a challenging season with an equally challenging opponent when it faces Southland Conference runner-up Abilene Christian University on Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum. Tipoff time is 3:30 p.m.
The Cardinals, 6-24 overall and 1-16 in the SLC, will face a Wildcat team that has a 24-6 overall record and is 13-4 in conference play.
Abilene Christian defeated UIW, 68-48, on Feb. 16 in San Antonio.
UIW is in the first year of a rebuilding program directed by head coach
Dr. Carson Cunningham, who built Carroll College of Helena, Montana – a team that had won only two games in the year prior to his arrival – into a three-time NAIA tournament team that appeared in the Final Eight twice. Cunningham had similar results as a high school coach, directing Andrean High of Merrillville, Indiana, to 43 wins in his last 50 games.
The Cardinals began the season with a roster that included eight freshmen, four sophomores, two juniors and only one senior. Many of these players have developed under Cunningham's system into seasoned veterans who have demonstrated potential for future stardom. For example, sophomore
Christian Peevy, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding, is the nation's 23
rd-ranked free through shooter (among approximately 4,500 Division I players) with 83.7 percent accuracy.
Peevy also makes more shots from the floor than he misses, hitting 54.1 percent. Other young Cardinals also have shown a propensity for accuracy from the line and the floor. Sophomore
Augustine Ene, and freshmen
Dwight Murray Jr. and
Antoine Smith Jr., are hitting four of five shots from the charity stripe, and shoot from the floor in the mid-to-high 40
th percentile.
UIW is the nation's hottest-shooting free throw team, sinking 81.1 percent of its foul shots, bettering second-place Hofstra by 1.3 percent.
When Cunningham coached at Carroll College, his teams led NAIA schools in both field goal and free throw percentage for three consecutive years.
Nevertheless, this has been an arduous year for UIW basketball, which has just fallen short of victory in numerous games. The last two games illustrate this point.
On Senior Night one week ago, the Cardinals lost an overtime thriller to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 74-72. The Islanders won on a three-point play after the Cardinals had come back to lead by one – that is, after UIW had fallen behind by four at the beginning of overtime. Then, four days later, UIW scored 111 points, hit 68 percent of its shots, made ten three-pointers, and out-rebounded HBU – only to lose a fast-paced but heartbreaking 118-111 game.
Saturday's game will be the last for three Cardinals who have contributed a great deal to the men's basketball team.
Charles Brown III, the team's only senior with regard to eligibility status, has played 54 games and averaged 26 minutes per game since transferring to UIW last season. He has hit 51 percent of his field goal attempts, which includes 41 percent from beyond he three-point arc. He has made 89.7 percent of his free throws. Brown, a native of New Orleans, will graduate in May with a degree in television production, and will be a two-time listee on the Southland Conference Commissioners Honor Roll.
Jorden Kite, a redshirt junior from San Antonio, has met the requirements for a bachelor's degree in accounting and has elected to graduate in May. A four-year team member, he will be named to the conference commissioner's honor roll for the third time. Kite is another excellent free throw shooter, having hit nine of ten attempts throughout his UIW career.
Arthur Lopez, another senior, is the team's manager.
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