It was all but over early as the Wildcats took down Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday night in Moody Coliseum. ACU won every quarter of the outing, finishing with a convincing 72-55 win.
Junior forward Dominique Golightly once again led the way for her team after scoring 19 points on Saturday. She repeated a great performance Wednesday night, leading the team with both 17 points and eight rebounds. She also contributed passing the ball with five assists.
Golightly said her team is trying to prove they can best Southland teams twice in a year.
“The team is just really excited right now,” Golightly said. “We’re at the end of this season where we’re playing teams we’ve already played and our focus is showing them who’s the better team.”
The women’s basketball team huddles before the game. (Photo by Nicholas Cromwell)
With a postseason-like matchup coming next week against Stephen F. Austin, Golightly said her team is confident and ready to see them again.
“We’re going to keep staying consistent and true to our scout,” Golightly said. “They’re definitely beatable and we know that. We played them in a close game last time and we know we can beat them.”
With the Wildcats’ win tonight, they remain in contention for a double-bye in the Southland Conference tournament. ACU has to win its final three regular season games, while SFA will have to lose all three.
The Islanders were without their top two scoring leaders, junior guard Dalesia Booth and junior forward Alexes Bryant, and neither traveled with the team due to violation of team rules.
TAMUCC was led by junior guard Emma Young, who tallied 14 points and five rebounds. The preseason all-conference player also contributed defensively with four steals.
At the half, ACU led 39-25 largely in part to how well they shot the basketball. In the first quarter, the Wildcats shot over 70 percent from the field, and it didn’t stop there. In the second quarter, freshman guard Madi Miller drained two three-pointers in rout to a 7-12 quarter from the field for the Wildcats.
After the game, head coach Julie Goodenough said her team needs to keep this energy up as the postseason nears.
“The grind of the season is wearing on everyone now and every team across America, but this is where you see your real basketball players rise to the occasion,” Goodenough said. “You’re getting ready to go to postseason play and you can’t get stagnant and tired of winning.”
The Wildcats now just have three games remaining on the season. Up next, ACU travels east to play Central Arkansas this Saturday at 2 p.m. Meanwhile the Islanders look to bounce back when they head to San Antonio to face up against Incarnate Word Saturday at 1 p.m.
