One of the worst games of the season for the Wildcats coupled with one of the best for the Angelo State Rambelles equaled a disastrous defeat for the ACU women.

Snapping a five-game winning streak, the Wildcats fell to the rival Belles 57-52 in San Angelo after a weeklong break from action.

“I felt it was a good a time for a break in the season for us,” said head coach Shawna Lavender. “We just didn’t come ready to play.”

The players echoed the coach’s thoughts on the game.

“They came out and played harder than we did,” said Kat Kundmueller, a senior point guard from Arlington. “Angelo was the better team Saturday.

The Wildcats came into the game against the Belles as a clear favorite. They were first in the Lone Star Conference South division, whereas Angelo State was 1-2 in conference play and struggling to find offense.

They didn’t need much offense against the turnover laden ‘Cats. Despite only scoring two points in the final 8:40 of the game the Belles still managed to hang on for an ugly win.

In the game, the Wildcats turned the ball over 19 times and managed only 28 rebounds. The Belles finished the game with 31 boards marking only the third time all season ACU has been out-rebounded.

“I though we played a lot of the game on our heels,” Lavender said. “We let them dictate what we did offensively and defensively.”

In the first half, the Wildcats grabbed only eight rebounds, all defensive, and were down at halftime 35-25.

Early in the second half, the Wildcats got down by as many as 19 points. The deficit was too much to overcome even though the defense did its job the last nine minutes of the game.

The Wildcats finished the game on a 13-2 run to make the score respectable, but the game was never really as close as the score showed.

Angelo State did a good job stopping the best inside presence in the conference as neither Jamie or Jody Meyer led the team in points and rebounds-the first time all season.

“I think we tried to force the ball inside too much,” Kundmueller said. “They had help down low and we just weren’t very aggressive.”

Courtney Laing was the only Wildcat who had any success against Angelo’s physical, in-your-face defense. Laing led ACU in both points and boards with 15 and seven, respectively.

ACU will try to get back to its winning ways against one of the toughest teams in the conference as the Wildcats travel to Tarleton State, Wednesday night to take on the Texanns.