By Jeff Craig, Sports Writer
The women’s basketball team continued its recent dominating run over Lone Star Conference opponents by crushing the Midwestern State Mustangs 73-57 in front of almost 1,200 fans in Wichita Falls.
The win over MSU also ended the Wildcats’ long streak of road losses against the Mustangs. Going into Saturday’s game, the Wildcats had lost nine in a row on the road against MSU, stretching back to the Clinton administration. Head coach Shawna Lavender was happy to see the disappointing streak end.
“We were talking about how the MSU game has been a low point of our season in years past,” Lavender joked. “This year, it was better to go back to the locker room after the game.”
The victory was ACU’s fourth-straight win and fifth triumph in its last six games. With the loss, Midwestern State fell to 7-12 on the season, while its LSC South record fell to just 2-3. The Wildcats now find themselves sitting at 13-7 with an LSC South record of 5-1. The Wildcats are moving closer to first-place West Texas A&M, who stands 5-0 in the division. West Texas head coach Krista Gerlich said the LSC is much improved and sees a tight race developing in the South Division.
“I always think it’s a tough race; if we both take of our business, it could come to down to the last game of the season at ACU,” Gerlich said.
The Wildcats were again sparked by another dominating performance of forward Audrey Maxwell-Lively, who scored a game-high 28 points while collecting six rebounds. Fellow forward Jamie Meyer dominated on the glass, grabbing 15 rebounds to go along with 13 points. Meyer, Maxwell-Lively and the rest of the forwards complemented their strong offense with some stingy defense. The Wildcat forwards kept MSU’s leading scorer and rebounder Regiane Araujo to just eight points and four rebounds.
The Wildcats kept the Mustangs to just 32.2 percent shooting from the field, while shooting 44.6 percent themselves. The Wildcats also out-rebounded the Mustangs 46-39 and dominated in the paint, outscoring MSU inside 36-20. The Wildcats improved their lead to 10 points at halftime and continued to pull away in the second half.
With 4:57 left in the game, MSU’s Katiya Jackson knocked down a three-point shot to pull the Mustangs within nine points; however, that would be their last shot made. The Wildcat defense allowed just four more points during the remainder of the game, all coming from the free-throw line. ACU finished the game on an 11-4 run, cruising to a 73-57 victory. Lavender felt her team played a great game from start to finish.
“The girls played great from the start; we were getting to lots of loose balls,” Lavender said. “MSU came out and threw a zone press at us in an attempt to slow our game down, but I felt we did a good job of not turning the ball over, and taking their posts out of the game.”
The Wildcats’ next game will be Saturday when they take on Texas-Permian Basin at 2 p.m. in Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats beat UTPB earlier this year 50-43 in Odessa. And on Tuesday, ACU will take on Texas A&M-Kingsville at home.
Tuesday’s game will be a part of the “Pink Zone” initiative put on by women’s basketball coaches around the country. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to raise awareness for breast cancer. Donations and special events will take place during the game. Lavender encourages ACU fans to come out and cheer on the team during this meaningful event.
