ABILENE — The Sam Houston State men's basketball team struggled on both ends of the court in an 85-69 loss to Abilene Christian Wednesday evening at Moody Coliseum.
 
The Bearkats shot just under 40 percent for most of the game to fall to 11-7 in Southland Conference play and 18-11 overall. The Wildcats, on the other hand, hit 51 percent of their shot attempts and hit nine 3-pointers to snap a three-game losing streak to SHSU.
 
Senior Dainan Swoope led the Bearkats with 17 points, and sophomore Zach Nutall scored 13. Senior Kai Mitchell chipped in eight points, and junior Terryonte Thomas had seven points.
 
Sam Houston trailed by as many as 15 to start the second half. The Kats responded with a 9-0 run with Nutall scoring six straight points and Swoope drilling a 3 to make it 42-36 with just under 18 minutes to go in the game.
 
ACU (18-10, 13-4 SLC) pushed the lead back to 58-43 six minutes later and began to pull away.
 
The Wildcats couldn't miss a shot in the first half. ACU shot 51 percent from the field and was 5 for 12, or 41.7 percent, from behind the arc to take a 39-27 lead into halftime.
 
The Bearkats shot just 39 percent with several shots going in and out and went 1 for 7 from long range. SHSU was also outscored in the paint 18-8.
 
The Kats have Saturday off before hitting the road again to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on March 4.