The Wildcats’ first loss of the season came against the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes 75-63 Wednesday night in Reynolds Center following a 6-0 start. Tulsa improved to 4-3 on the season.
Junior guard Dominique Golightly led the way for the Wildcats in their loss with a double-double racking up 24 points on 8-15 shooting and 10 rebounds.
ACU struggled from the get-go with six turnovers in the first quarter alone and allowed the Golden Hurricanes to score 24 points and 10 of those off turnovers.
Things got back on track for the Wildcats in the second quarter where they went on an 11-1 run to take the lead for the first time in the game 34-32 with 2:21 remaining. At the half, the score was tied 36-36.
The game got out of hand, however, in the third quarter for ACU as Tulsa started the second half making its first three of four baskets. Junior Guard Alexis Gaulden for the Golden Hurricanes was dominant in the game scoring a team high 24 points and five assists. 15 of those points came in the second half alone.
In total, the Wildcats finished with 22 turnovers compared to Tulsa’s seven. One of the biggest factors of the game was how Tulsa converted ACU’s forced turnovers into 32 points. Poor play created a gap in the second half the Wildcats simply couldn’t fix.
Senior guard Sara Williamson said the team will have to eliminate turnovers moving forward
“I think we learned just how important taking care of the basketball is,” Williamson said. “We had 22 turnovers last night and had we had even just five of those possessions back, I believe the game would have turned out completely different.”
Coming up next, Tulsa heads to the Arizona State Classic to face Alabama Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Meanwhile, ACU hopes to bounce back from its first loss of the season when playing Schreiner Saturday at 1 p.m. in Moody.
