ABILENE, Texas -- Fresh off an 84-82 victory at Houston Baptist, the University of the Incarnate Word men's basketball team heads west to try and make it two consecutive victories against Abilene Christian at 7 p.m. Saturday at Moody Coliseum.
 
"It was great to see the fellas battle their way to a conference road win earlier this week at Houston Baptist," Cardinals coach Carson Cunningham said. "We want to build on that as we hit the road again. Abilene Christian is playing really good ball. The squad is led by a heady, prolific senior shooting guard in Payten Ricks and two strong forwards in Joe Pleasant and Kolton Kohl. The team has a bunch of other contributors, too. We will be ready to get after it."

TIPOFF COVERAGE
Live stream: ESPN 3 and Cardinals Sports Network
Live Stats: SIDEARM 
 
SERIES HISTORY
UIW (5-15, 2-7 SLC) leads ACU (11-9, 6-3 SLC) in head-to-head matchups, 12-7. 
 
FRESHMEN FRENZY
Two Cardinals are among the top-3 scorers in the SLC among freshman - Keaston Willis is second with 12.9 PPG and Drew Lutz is fourth with 11.3 PPG. Vincent Miszkiewicz leads all freshmen in the conference in rebounds per game (7.9) and is third in the SLC in blocks per game (1.0) by a freshman.

BALENTINE'S DAY
Redshirt junior guard Des Balentine recorded a career-high 16 points against HBU, shooting 8-10 from the field and addings six rebounds and two steals. His four assists also were a career best.

THREE-STON WILLIS
Willis led all scorers in the HBU win with 23 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists and two steals. He's also hit at least one 3-pointer in 17 of the team's 20 games and is fifth in the conference in 3-pointers made. 

VICTORIOUS VAN VLERAH
Freshman forward Derek Van Vlerah also tallied career highs in points (10), minutes (28), 3-pointers made (2), and rebounds (3) in the win over HBU.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION

• The Wildcats have lost two of their last three contests, most recently falling to SLC leader SFA, 71-61 on the road.
• ACU has the No. 1 scoring defense in the conference, allowing just 64.6 points per game to opponents. The team also has the second-best average scoring margin in the conference (+10.8).
• The Wildcats excel at defending the three, holding opponents to 29.7 percent shooting from outside the arc. They also have the fifth-best rebounding margin in the conference (+0.45)
• No team in the SLC takes care of the ball better than ACU, which has a league-best +6.25 turnover margin. The Wildcats also boast the league's third-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.03.
• Payten Ricks is the Wildcats' leading scorer with 13.4 points per game, shooting 38.3 percent from the floor and 35 percent from three. He also leads the conference in steals per game (2.50). 
• Joe Pleasant and Kolton Kohl round out the team's top scorers at 11.0 and 10.0 points per game, respectively. 

 
STAY TUNED 
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The UIW men's basketball team is on Twitter at @UIWMBB and Instagram at @uiwmensbasketball.