ACU Women's Basketball Clinches Spot In Postseason
By: ACU Athletics
Updated: February 6, 2013
COMMERCE
- The ACU Wildcats punched their ticket to the Lone Star Conference
Post-Season Tournament on Wednesday as they rallied from a five-point
halftime deficit to knock off Texas
A&M-Commerce, 75-61, at the Lion Fieldhouse.
The
win pushes the Wildcats to 16-4 overall and 11-3 in the LSC and
clinches their spot in the post-season tournament after missing last
year's tournament. First-year head coach Julie
Goodenough has her team in third place in the LSC standings with six
games to play, including a crucial contest Saturday at 5:30 p.m. when it
hosts second-place Tarleton State at Moody Coliseum.
The
TexAnns improved to 15-4 overall and 11-2 in the LSC on Wednesday with a
75-48 whipping of Angelo State in Stephenville. ACU has lost eight
straight games against Tarleton State
and hasn't beaten the TexAnns since a 77-71 win in Abilene on Jan. 28,
2009.
Midwestern
State remained in first place in the league standings Wednesday night
with a 58-55 win at West Texas A&M that pushed the Lady Mustangs to
12-2 in the LSC, while the Lady Buffs
fall to 8-6. Tarleton State is in second in the league at 11-2,
one-half game behind Midwestern, while ACU is in third at 11-3, one game
behind Midwestern and one game ahead of fourth-place Incarnate Word
(10-4).
The
Wildcats trailed the Lady Lions 33-28 at halftime Wednesday night in
their final trip ever to the Fieldhouse, but shot 57.7 percent in the
second half (15 of 26) and limited Commerce
to just 30.3 percent shooting from the field (10 of 33) in the final 20
minutes to pull out the win.
ACU
outscored the Lady Lions 47-28 in the second half as the Wildcats - who
could meet Commerce in the conference tournament in Allen - ran their
all-time record against the Lady Lions
to 52-10 on Wednesday, including seven straight victories.
The
Wildcats opened the second half on a 12-2 run to take their first lead
since a 6-4 advantage early in the first half. Sadie Dickinson's
3-pointer with 14:39 left in the game broke
a 37-37 tie and gave ACU the lead. Dickinson and Renata Marquez then
followed with back-to-back jumpers to give the Wildcats a 44-37 lead
with 13:20 to play.
But
as would be the case throughout the second half, the pesky Lady Lions
wouldn't go away. They cut the ACU lead to 46-43 with 12:35 to player
after a pair of Symone Brown 3-pointers,
but Marquez answered with a jumper and a 3-pointer to push ACU's lead
back to 51-43 with 11:26 to play.
The
Lions again trimmed the lead to 55-51 with 6:53 to play, but freshman
Whitney West answered with a 3-pointer to push ACU's lead back to 58-51
with 6:38 left in the game.
After
the Lady Lions once again trimmed ACU's advantage to 59-54, freshman
Kynzie Newman buried a 3-pointer to make it 62-54 with 5:04 to play and
the Wildcats' lead wouldn't fall below
eight points the rest of the way.
Marquez
finished with 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in
her best performance in a couple of weeks. West poured in a career-high
19 points on 6 of 8 shooting from
the floor, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. She also had five
rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes.
Dickinson was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 10 points to go along with six rebounds.
