Abilene Christian delivered the last big turnaround of the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Saturday night, defeating Texas 53-52
It was the first Wildcats Division I tournament win with 14 seeders in the school’s history.
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Joe Pleasant was fouled on Abilene Christian’s last move and hit the winning free throws to put the Wildcats up.
Pleasant finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, in addition to the most important shots of his life. Coryon Mason was the only other double-digit Abilene Christian player, ending with 11 points and two rebounds.
Andrew Jones, from Texas, hit an incredible three-point ball to place the Longhorns in one point 16 seconds from the end. But the Longhorns were unable to fire with 1.2 seconds remaining and lost the game.
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Jones finished with 13 points and five assists in the game.
Kai Jones had 11 points and Jericho Sims had 10 points.
Abilene Christian was successful at the Division II level, but was never very successful at the Division I level until Saturday night against the Longhorns.
Texas number 3 was the champion of the 12 great champions and participated in the tournament for the first time since 2018. The team has not participated in the second round of the tournament since 2015.
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Abilene Christian will now play UCLA No. 11 in the second round. The Bruins won No. 6 from BYU in the first round.