The women’s basketball team has another quick turnaround when they take on Lamar in Moody on Saturday afternoon.
“We’re kind of used to it. This is how all season’s been,” said junior forward Suzzy Dimba. “We just play one night, maybe have a couple days to rest and play again. So we just have to get to the scouting report and learn about Lamar and hopefully beat them on Saturday.”
ACU is coming off their eight consecutive home win and 13th straight win overall, after they defeated Houston Baptist, 77-60.
“It’s nice to be at home we love playing at Moody. We’ve had games on the road where we have two people in the stands,” said head coach Julie Goodenough. “And so it’s really nice to be in front of a friendly crowd. Good to be able to just stay in a schedule, go to class, workout at regular times.”
The Wildcat victory was fueled by a strong rebounding performance, as they out-rebounded HBU 50-27. The effort was led by junior Alexis Mason, who finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, to record her first career double-double.
Meanwhile Lamar visits the Key city, after falling to Sam Houston State 78-76 in an instant classic on Wednesday night. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 4-5 in conference play, and was just their third loss at home this season.
The Wildcats will take on Lamar as part of a home-and-home series, meaning they will play in Moody on Saturday and then at Lamar the following Thursday.
The teams enter this game with similar strengths on paper. Lamar heads into the game leading the conference in steals with 11.4 per game, while ACU is third at 10.84 per contest. The Cardinals also lead the league in turnover margin; forcing 4.45 more per game than their opponents, while ACU is second at 3.21 per game.
These teams met last season on the same terms, except the first game of the home-and-home series took place in Beaumont. Lamar was able to muster a win in both those contests, 76-72 at home and 73-58 victory in Moody Coliseum.
“Lamar is a really good team. They present some mismatches issues for us because they’re so athletic so a really big crowd would be huge to help us,” Goodenough said.
Saturday’s matchup will be ACU’s 20th of the season, and is the start of the second half of Southland Conference play. The Wildcats remain atop the conference at 8-0 and are in the top-5 in almost every statistical category.
With a win the team would surpass their win total from a year ago.
