The ACU women’s basketball team lost Wednesday against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock, 61-44.
The Wildcats never led in the game but tied at 18 on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Ellyn Avery with 7:22 left in the first half. Tech would grab the lead just 52 seconds later on a free throw by senior guard Amber Battle, a lead they would never lose.
“Our defensive effort was really, really good today except that we would not block out,” said Julie Goodenough, head coach. “We played great team defense but wouldn’t get physical to block out. We will definitely spend time during finals working on rebounding.”
Rebounding has been one of the team’s strengths in this early season averaging 41.5 before their Wednesday game. But the team managed just 26 rebounds against the Lady Raiders’ 48 total rebounds which Goodenough said is unacceptable for her team.
“There is no excuse for not blocking out and pursuing rebounds,” she said. “There was simply a lack of focus today.”
Such lack of focus could have been the result of the amount of scrutiny the players received as the away team against their Big 12 opponent. The Raiders scored 22 points off Wildcat turnovers in front of an estimated 6,477 fans at the United Supermarkets Arena.
The Wildcats are currently 3-0 in front of the home crowd this season, outscoring their opponents by a little more than 25 points a game, compared to their now 2-2 record on the road.
“We had about two to three dozen fans today compared to the 5,000 for the home team, and that does make a huge difference without the home crowd energy like we have in Moody,” Goodenough said.
Goodenough said the team will try to use the next 12-day break they have before their next game to focus on the players’ schoolwork and getting better as individuals and as a whole going forward.
“(The team) will now have a chance to dedicate some time for preparing for finals since we are not preparing for an opponent for awhile,” Goodenough said. “This break also allows us to focus on ourselves for awhile and schedule extra individual workouts as well as video sessions.”
The Wildcats will try to bounce back from their loss and extend their home record to 4-0 as they take on Southwestern Christian College Dec. 15 at Moody Coliseum.
