Box Score ABILENE – Abilene Christian true freshman Jaylen Franklin scored 23 of his career-high 29 points in the second half to help lead the Wildcats to a 75-67 Southland Conference win over McNeese on Tuesday.
 
Franklin connected on 11-of-15 from the field, 8 for 9 in the second half, and halted any chances for the Cowboys to make a second half rally.
 
"We didn't have an answer for him," said McNeese coach Dave Simmons. "They kept us off balance the whole night. We were never in sync."
 
Jamaya Burr led the Cowboys (3-12, 1-4 SLC) with 21 points on 6 of 10 shooting, including 8 of 10 from the free throw line, but he turned the ball over seven times and dished out just two assists.
 
"The difference in the first half were the 11 turnovers," said Simmons. "We did a better job of taking care of the ball in the second half but that's when Franklin took over for them."
 
McNeese trailed 30-24 at the half and turned it over 11 times leading to 10 ACU points. The Cowboys also shot poorly in the half, making just 8 of 22 for 36.4 percent, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range.
 
The second half was played much better by the Cowboys, but unfortunately, for the Wildcats as well.
 
McNeese hit 50 percent in the half (15 of 30) and 5 of 11 from long range. However, ACU topped that by knocking down 15 of 25 for 60 percent.
 
ACU (8-10, 3-2) built a 10-point lead (38-28) on a break-away dunk by Franklin but the Cowboys battled back and cut the margin to 3 at 47-4 following a James Harvey three-pointer, one of four in the game for the true freshman.
 
The lead was 3 again at 51-48 with 9:22 to play following a couple of Burr free throws but Franklin took over and scored six straight points in a span of 36 seconds to build the Wildcat lead back to 9 at 57-48 with 8:32 to play.
 
McNeese got the deficit down to five following another Harvey 3 to make it 62-57 with 3:55 to play but ACU went on a 7-0 run to go up 69-57 with 2:44 to play.
 
Harvey finished with 14 points after hitting 4 of 8 from long range. He's knocked down 9 of 15 from 3-point range over the last two games. Jarren Greenwood and Craig McFerrin added 12 points each.
 
ACU's Jaren Lewis scored 12 and Duran Porter 10 to round out the double-figure scorers for ACU.
 
McNeese returns home for a Saturday doubleheader against Northwestern State beginning at 1 p.m.