By Jeff Craig, Sports Writer
The Wildcats will enter the 2009 Lone Star Conference tournament on a wave of momentum and as the No. 2 seed after upsetting No. 14 West Texas A&M 65-55 in the last game of the regular season.
The Lady Buffs entered the regular season finale with the Wildcats having already clinched the LSC South title and as the No. 1 team in the NCAA South Central region. Meanwhile, the Wildcats entered the final game needing a victory to clinch the No. 2 seed in the LSC South.
The Wildcats pulled off the upset, giving head coach Shawna Lavender and her team confidence and good positioning as they head into the postseason tournament.
“The big thing for us in the game against West Texas was securing the No. 2 seed,” Lavender said. “Secondly, the game served as a momentum builder for us and finally a victory over our region’s top team, which should help our regional ranking as well.”
The Wildcats were anchored by All-Conference center Audrey Maxwell-Lively, who recorded her 37th career double-double by scoring 16 points and collecting 10 rebounds in her final home game. Maxwell-Lively also earned LSC South Women’s Player of the Week honors for her performance. Forward Jamie Meyer scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while point guard Kat Kundmueller dished out nine assists and committed just three turnovers in the win.
After leading 30-29 at halftime, West Texas A&M opened the second half with the hot hand, going on a 15-7 run to go up 45-36 with just over 11 minutes remaining. But after allowing the Lady Buffs to score 15 of the first 22 points of the half, the Wildcats took over. ACU closed the game on a 28-9 run to shock the Lady Buffs 64-55. Lavender attributes her team’s amazing run to close out the game to its ability to clamp down on the defensive end of the floor.
“I think the key to the run was defensively, we weren’t shooting very well, but we were able to buckle down and make them take bad shots,” Lavender said.
After beating WTAMU, the Wildcats departed for Bartlesville, Okla., on Monday for the LSC Championship. ACU joins a field of four teams from the LSC North and four from the LSC South. ACU joins West Texas A&M, Angelo State and Tarleton State from the South Division, while Central Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma, Texas A&M-Commerce and Northeastern State will represent the North Division.
In the conference quarterfinals, ACU will play Texas A&M-Commerce, the No. 3 seed in the North, at 6 p.m. Wednesday. ACU knocked the Lions out of the 2008 LSC Championship and defeated them again 104-95 earlier this season.
“Commerce is a scary team,” Lavender said. “They are very quick and athletic, and they have one of the best players in Division II in Britney Jordan.”
Jordan leads the nation in scoring, averaging 31 points per game. In the teams’ first matchup Jan. 3, Jordan scored 53 points, setting the record for most points in a game by an LSC player before being broken by Texas Woman’s forward Renee Renz two days later. Coach Lavender feels that stopping Jordan completely is unrealistic, but the Wildcats must repeat what they accomplished earlier his year by making sure the other Lions do not hurt them. If ACU wins, they will play the winner of the Central Oklahoma-Tarleton State game.
In addition to the LSC Championship, the Wildcats will also be looking to earn a bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. To qualify for the NCAA field of 64, the Wildcats must either win the LSC tournament or finish ranked in the top eight in the NCAA’s South Central Region. Prior to their win over West Texas A&M, the Wildcats were ranked No. 8 in the region. The Wildcats have not made the NCAA tournament in four years, missing by just one spot the past two seasons.
“It’s been a very interesting year,” Lavender said. “We started rough and were trying to find our identity early in the season. At some point in the season everything clicked. At that point, we began to mentally win some games and we began to grow and mature.”
