The Wildcats captured their twentieth win of the season on Tuesday at Moody Coliseum with a victory over Texas Women’s University, 67-50.
The Lady ‘Cats eclipse twenty wins for the seventeenth time in ACU history, and first since 2004-2005.
“We have twenty wins this season, are ranked first in our conference and we are ranked second in the region,” senior Kelsey Smith said. “This shows that the ACU women’s basketball program is for real.”
The win puts ACU at 20-4, 15-3 LSC and pushes their first place lead up to two games over second placed Tarleton (17-5, 13-3) with two games left in the season. The Wildcats improve their home court record as well to 10-2 after being 6-6 at Moody Coliseum last season.
“We have worked so hard this season and have really had something to prove after having a disappointing past couple of seasons,” junior Renata Marquez said. “I also feel like we’ve exceeded a lot of expectations.”
The Wildcats came out of the gates ice cold shooting from the field. They went into halftime with a 29-19 lead, shooting only 25.8 percent from the field, including 12.5 percent from beyond the arc.
The ‘Cats were able to find the bottom of the basket easier and more often in the second half, as they scored 38 points and were sent to the free throw line a total of 31 times on the night. As a team, they shot 25-31 FT and were able to hold TWU to 38 percent shooting for the game.
“We let them hang around for a while and didn’t do a good job of closing out and finishing,” Smith said. “The second half, we came out ready to play and ready to do all the small things we had to, to get the win.”
Junior Mack Lankford led all scorers with 19 points, including 11-12 from the free throw line to go along with three assists.
Junior Renata Marquez also had a solid night, with 14 points and a handful of rebounds. Freshman Kynzie Newman contributed 10 points on the night, after knocking down two clutch free throws to put the Wildcats up for good.
“I don’t think anyone besides the people on the team and the coaches know just how good we are,” Marquez said. “We have so many great players and players who can make big plays in big moments.”
Goodenough was honored before the game Tuesday with a unique ACU jersey commemorating her 300 career wins as a head coach. Several members of ACU and Hardin-Simmons athletic departments greeted her at half court to congratulate her.
Goodenough won 188 of her 309 victories with Hardin-Simmons from 1993-2002.
The Wildcats will face Incarnate Word on Wed. Feb. 27 at 5:30 p.m. on the road. The Wildcats defeated the Cardinals 76-65 in their previous meeting.
