By Joel Weckerly, Sports Editor
After a rough 3-6 beginning, the women’s basketball team won all five of its games during Christmas break before dropping its Lone Star Conference South opener to Angelo State on Tuesday.
Despite the 78-63 loss to the 14th-ranked Rambelles, the Wildcats beefed up their record to 8-7 before diving into the 13 straight conference games that will wrap up their season.
“We had a pretty brutal beginning of the season,” head coach Wayne Williams said of the four Top-25-ranked teams the Cats faced in their first seven games. “It took us a while to get it together and get comfortable with each other, but I really like the direction we’re going in. I see a lot of good things ahead.”
The good things will come from a balanced team attack, one in which individual players haven’t had to carry the team’s load. In the win over Cameron on Jan. 9, ACU’s inside game was shut down, so guards Ashley King and Leah Wilson combined for 39 points to boost the team to the 71-62 victory. But in the 68-65 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State on Jan. 11, just the opposite occurred, as post players Melanie Carter and Jackie Vinson teamed up for 36 points and 13 rebounds when the perimeter game was lacking.
“That’s one of the things that’s really interesting about this team,” Williams said. “It hasn’t been just one person, it’s been the whole team doing what has to be done on any given night.”
Williams said the team is also benefiting from properly executing the big three: shooting, defensive intensity and bench production. Vinson and guard Jenny Jackson, both juniors recovering from knee injuries, have been making significant offensive contributions, he said.
“They’ve really picked it up, and [freshman guard] Kierstan Barbee and [redshirt sophomore forward] Meredith Doyle are starting to do good things for us also,” Williams said of the reserve leaders.
ACU’s main leader is the 14.3 point-per-game leading scorer Carter, who said the team started to win games when it knew it could play better.
“We were sick and tired of the way we were playing,” she said. “We were pretty low on ourselves, but we said we weren’t going to lose anymore.”
“We’re playing great and we’re meshing well,” King, a freshman, said. “Over Christmas break, we spent so much time with each other off the court, and that’s helped us play better together on the court.”
That cohesiveness, along with fan support, is what Williams said would help the team be successful as it battles through LSC play.
“Our players feed off the excitement in the stands,” he said following Tuesday’s loss to ASU, to which an estimated 1,000 fans showed up. “It always helps to have the home court advantage.”
The Wildcats will wrap up their four-game home stretch with a pair of division games against Eastern New Mexico and West Texas A&M on Jan. 23 and 25, respectively, before taking a five -game road trip.
