By Michael Freeman, Assistant Sports Editor
Earlier this season, Texas A&M Commerce squeaked by ACU 86-80 in overtime. The Wildcats will look for revenge against the Lions Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the Lone Star Post-Season Tournament in Bartlesville, Okla.
But before Thursday’s rematch, the Wildcats first had to wrap up their regular season against Texas A&M Kingsville on Saturday. ACU convincingly defeated the Javelinas 92-74 in Moody Coliseum. The win pushed the Wildcats’ overall record to 17-10 and their conference record to 11-3 in the LSC South Division, while Texas A&M Kingsville ended its season with a 7-20 overall record and a 3-11 record in conference play.
“I was pretty pleased with the way our girls came out and played,” said head coach Shawna Lavender. “After the disappointing loss on Thursday and then Saturday’s game not really meaning a whole lot as far as getting into the tournament, you’re always kind of iffy about how your kids are going to respond to something like that.”
After losing by two points to West Texas A&M on Thursday, the Wildcats employed a balanced attack where every player who got in Saturday’s game- a total of 12 players – scored at least two points.
Guard Alex Guiton and forward Kristee Davidson led ACU with 17 points each. Forward Ashlee Barr ended the game with 13 points, while center Audrey Maxwell, forward Jody Meyer and guard Joanna Harner all finished with eight points each.
“Everybody played with a lot of confidence,” Lavender said. “I was happy to see that. I felt like we got a lot of kids some good minutes, which I think will be very beneficial for us going into the conference tournament.”
ACU hit 50.8 percent of its shots in the game, while Texas A&M-Kingsville shot a dismal 33.3 percent. The Wildcats also grabbed 48 rebounds to the Lions’ 38. And ACU drained an impressive 42.1 percent of its 3-point shots, while Texas A&M-Kingsville only hit 19 percent of its 3-pointers.
“Our girls came in with the mindset of going into the conference tournament on a positive note,” Lavender said. “I didn’t have to do a whole lot of motivating. They had already done that for themselves.”
The Wildcats will try to maintain their motivation into Thursday’s noon matchup against Texas A&M-Commerce. On Jan. 12, the Lions defeated the Wildcats 86-80 in overtime. Texas A&M-Commerce ended its regular season with a 19-8 overall record and 8-4 record in the LSC North Division.
The Lions are the top rebounding squad in the conference, averaging more than 44 rebounds per game. Texas A&M-Commerce also leads the conference in steals with a total of 309 during the regular season.
“The two key stats the last time we played them were offensive rebounds where we gave up 27 and we turned the ball over 31 times, and we still had a chance to win at a time when we really weren’t playing great basketball,” Lavender said. “If we turn those two things around, then I think we’ll have a really good shot at winning the game.”
If the Wildcats win Thursday’s game, their next matchup will be Saturday at noon against the winner of the Central Oklahoma-Tarleton State game.
“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Do you have a preference of who you play in the tournament?’,” Lavender said. “At this point, you’re just happy you’re playing another day. That’s the kind of attitude we’re going in with. And that’s going to be the most important thing for us to just focus on one game at a time.”
