The Abilene Christian men's basketball team had a red-hot start to the Lone Star Conference tournament, but needed two overtimes to finally outlast Southwestern Oklahoma State, 108-98, in Wednesday's quarterfinal game at Bruin Field House.

• See more photos here 

            The Wildcats, the third-seed in South Division, jumped out to an 18-3 lead in the opening minutes and led by 15 with 8:36 to play in regulation, but survived a furious Bulldogs rally late in the second half and then another in the first overtime.

            But in the second overtime, ACU (20-8) converted several easy buckets and made 10 straight free throws, taking advantage of a shorthanded Bulldogs team that had five players, including four starters, foul out. 

With the help of 24 points each from Dan Sencanski and Corwin Ragland, ACU recorded its first LSC tournament win since 1998. The Wildcats, also making their first tournament appearance in 10 years, advanced to Friday's semifinal to play Texas A&M-Commerce, a 69-63 winner over West Texas A&M in the second game of Wednesday's afternoon session.

            The season ends for SWOSU (21-7), the second-seed from, the LSC North, but not without a fight. Junior guard Kendall Smith came off the bench to score 21 points, aided by 7-of-11 3-point shooting. Smith finished two 3-pointers shy of an LSC Tournament record, held by Eastern New Mexico's Stephen Hamrick in 1995.

            The Bulldogs outscored ACU 10-1 in the final 1:31 of regulation and tied the game with four seconds on a jumper by Nate Perry, who led all scorers with 25 points. 

            Late in the first overtime, with the game tied 91-91 with less than a minute to play, ACU's Brandon Callahan broke the tie with a layup and foul to give the Wildcats a three-point edge. But Bulldogs guard Clarke Hale quickly tied the score again with a long 3-pointer from the top of the key with 30 seconds to play. ACU missed two shots in the final seconds and the game went to double overtime.

            In the second extra frame, ACU pulled away at the free throw line, led by Ragland, who hit six free throws down the stretch.

            Callahan and Cameron Holson each added 17 points for the Wildcats, who out-rebounded the Bulldogs 46-29.

            While Perry paced the Bulldogs scoring, Hale added 20. Abdullah Lawal, the LSC's Defensive Player of the Year, scored 11 points before fouling out in the first overtime.

Abilene Christian Notes
ACU is making its first appearance in the Lone Star Conference post-season tournament since 1997-98. The Wildcats played 268 games since their last game in the tournament, a 134-129 loss to Central Oklahoma in the LSC tournament semifinals in 1998 . . . ACU is seeking its fourth overall LSC tournament championship, but first since 1987 . . . Abilene Christian defeated SWOSU 87-66 on Jan. 3 in an LSC crossover game in Abilene and are now 3-1 in the last four meetings with the Bulldogs . . . ACU, the top shooting team in the league at 51.2 percent during the season, connected on 57.1 percent of their shots from the field in Wednesday's win, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range . . . ACU surpassed 100 points for the fourth time in its LSC Tournament history. The Wildcats are now 3-1 when reaching the century mark . . . ACU improved its overall record to 20-9, posting the school's first 20-win season since the 1998-99 season when the Wildcats finished 21-9 and advanced the South Central regional finals . . . With 24 points against SWOSU, Sencanski scored in double figures for the 12^th straight game and the 20^th in his last 21 games.

Southwestern Oklahoma Notes
Abdullah Lawal has had a steal in 27-of-28 games this season...Kendall Smith has made a three-point basket in nine-consecutive games...ACU's 47 points in the first half is the most SWOSU has given up in a first half this season...this was only the fifth time that SWOSU has scored 32 points or fewer in a half this season...this was the fifth overtime game for SWOSU on the year with a 4-1 record in those contests...108 points is the most that SWOSU has allowed this season and is the only time it has allowed a 100-point game...98 points is the high scoring mark for SWOSU on the season...Nate Perry led SWOSU in scoring for the 14^th time this year with his second highest point total of the season (25)...SWOSU had five players (four starters) foul out.         

SWOSU quotes

Coach Todd Thurman - Obvious question, but what are your guys feeling right now?  I know it wasn't the last couple of minutes that you wanted to see.

"Yeah, it was tough.  We had a group of guys in there that don't play together very much and we were trying to do things and make stuff up as we went.  There's two things right now - one, we were so excited.  We started playing like we had always played this season and we made a run at it.  We had opportunities.  We had opportunities.  But this could now have possibly ended our season, we don't know yet so we're going to wait and see what happens region wise.  We had a great year, a 21-win season.  I thought our kids played like this all year long.  We're real disappointed and we're going to hurt for awhile - because a loss is a loss.  But when it's over and down the road, I think these guys are going to say,'wow', what a great comeback.  What a great opportunity and what heart we showed coming back like that.'  But right now it just hurts right now."

Coach Thurman - What did you guys do there in the second half differently with Ragland in the game to get back into it?

"We just started going under the screen of his. We tried to cut him off.  We probably should have been doing it the whole time, but we didn't.  So we made the adjustment.  It helped us a bit, but every time that we'd forget he would get to the hole again.  That is what they do.  They are really good at it and Corey‘s very good at it.  He's one of the best that I have ever seen at attacking the basket and then when you come to help he's going to find the open guy.  The idea was to not let him in the paint at all and I thought we did a good job of that and making him take some outside shots.  But they were patient and they got what they needed."

Nate Perry - What was the difference between the first and second half for you guys offensively?

I think in the first half we came out there real anxious.  Then in the second half we just came out there and played like we wanted it.  We made good defensive stops and then we turned around and hit big shots.  We wanted to come out there every time and make big shots.  For a while there it seemed to work.

Kendall Smith - Kendall, 21 points, 7-11 and all of your shots from behind the arc, did you think you played well.

"Yeah, I guess.  I put a lot of pressure on myself.  I feel that when I get an open shot that I should knock it down.  My team did a lot in helping me get open shots and setting screens.  I feel that I did the best that I could. 

Coach Thurman - Coach, you've been around a long time, have you ever seen anything like that?

"No.  I told them after the game that I felt privileged to be a part of a game like that.  I've seen comebacks before, but I have never seen anything like that before, to be in that big of a hole and really be just depleted.  Everything was down, everyone was down...We walked into the locker room down.  And to come out of the locker room and to see the fire in their eyes and get this game into double-overtime...I've never seen anything like it.  I just feel privileged to have been a part of that. 

Coach Thurman - Is this what you expected out of those guys (ACU)?  Did you think it was going to be high-scoring like this?

"They had lost four straight and then it was funny how their films changed.  They went away from their motions as much and started going to their ball screen and attack and letting Corwin drive the land.  They found their niche.  We tried really hard to work against it, but they worked it really well.  They were scoring a high amount of points and we tried to slim it down.  I thought we did a better job in the second half, but obviously the first half is what killed us."

Perry - What kept you guys in the position to come back?

"We've been in that position before.  When we came out in the second half, we knew we were going to have to play hard.  So we came out and showed that we can play.  The heart that we showed in the second half is beyond words.

Coach Thurman - Was the final OT more of a depleted team or a team just running out of gas?

I think that most of our shooters were on the bench.  The early fouls came back to hurt us and all of our fire-power was on the sideline.  We really had a group of guys in there and a look that we've never practiced.  We were kind of trying to do things on the fly with that group.  If Tanner had gotten some shots to fall, it may have been different.  But they made some shots and capitalized at the free-throw line and not to mention they still had a pretty good group out there.

ACU Quotes

ACU Quotes (Post-game vs. SWOSU):

Head coach Jason Copeland

On ACU's start: "I thought we came out really ready to play.  We got off to a great jump in the first half and the start of the second half.  We built the lead up to 15 at the first media and then they began to cut into us."

            On SWOSU's comeback: "They made a good run and made a lot of big plays just like most good teams do.  Kendall Smith made some good shots as he has done all year, but we made some plays that gave them opportunities.  They did everything they had to do to climb back into the game."

            On resurgence over the last three weeks: "We made some changes in our offense that has allowed Dejan, Cameron and Corwin more opportunities top score.  Dejan was player of the week last week.  We could not have made those changes without the guards we have.  We tweaked a couple of things in our offense plus we have been taking care of the ball better."

            Looking to semi-finals:  "We played really well at West Texas A&M three weeks ago and led by five with two minutes left but missed five free throws in a row late that cost us.  We won at Texas A&M-Commerce in January.  It is still about us getting ready to play no matter who it is.  We will go over scouting reports but we won't make any major changes.  This late in the season you have to do what you hang your hat on.  It is about us doing the best job we can."

            On the day off:  "I am going to stick around and watch the next game but send the guys back to get something to eat and some fluids in them to re-hydrate."

            On SWOSU's foul trouble:  "Abdullah Lawal is the defensive player of the year from the north and he can guard.  We definitely took advantage of that we he fouled out."

ACU junior Cameron Holson:

            On the win: "We did what we had to do to win.  We have some great players on this team that are going to score night in and night out.  What a lot of people don't know is that we have a lot of good role players that can come in and score when out top guys don't."

            On ACU's first postseason win since 1999:  "The only thing I can compare this to is sitting in Austin."

ACU senior Corwin Ragland:

            On his ability to penetrate: "We have a lot of great shooters.  When they are hitting their shots, the other team has to concentrate on them.  That allows me to get inside for easy buckets."

ACU junior Dejan Sencanski:

            On answering SWOSU's charge:  "Our offense is hard to guard.  If you cover Cameron then I am going to score.  If you cover both of us, then Corwin scores."