The Wildcats opened the 2022-23 season on a dominant note, defeating the Div. III Howard Payne Lady Jackets, 89-37.

The win on Wednesday night was a historic one for the Wildcats, with it being the first game in Moody Coliseum since March 3, 2020, where they defeated then Southland Conference foe Stephen F. Austin, 88-62. The game was also individually historic for head coach Julie Goodenough, who started off her 11th season as head coach by earning her 200th career win for ACU women’s basketball.

“I’m so grateful to be the basketball coach at this university,” Goodenough said. “This is really like my dream job, and I’ve been able to be here over a decade. I appreciate the support from President Schubert and board of trustees. They really want athletics to be competitive and they’re giving us the resources we need to have excellence in our programs. It is a honor and a blessing to be able to walk into this.”

Heading into the night, the starting lineup for ACU remained uncertain due to the nine new players for the team, but ultimately, these were the five that started the game:

• Bella Earle, sophomore guard from Corinth
• Zoe Jackson, sophomore guard from McKinney and transfer from Butler University
• Madi Miller, graduate guard from Wylie
• Addison Martin, sophomore forward from Shreveport, Louisiana
• Maleeah Langstaff, graduate forward from Asheville, North Carolina and transfer from Northeastern State

In the first game back in Moody, Goodenough’s young team faced some early struggles. The team only shot 23 percent from the field and 11 percent from the 3-point line, but still maintained a 17-10 lead.

“We’ve had a couple of scrimmages and have been practicing since June, but the game day experience is completely different,” Goodenough said. “You can’t really have anything like a game environment in practice. So that’s going to take a little bit of time to kind of lock in and understand, like this is for real. But I thought after the first five minutes, we were able to settle in.”

From the second quarter forward, the Wildcats dominated the game against the Lady Jackets.

They finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field versus Howard Payne’s 23 percent. The Wildcats also dominated the paint and the transition game, getting 62 points from the paint and 20 points off of their fast break opportunities. They also caused the Lady Jackets to commit 24 turnovers and generated 16 steals.

Leading the Wildcats both offensively and defensively was guard Zoe Jackson. She finished with a career-high of 22 points, while leading ACU with four steals. After the game, Jackson said how the crowd of 1,310 and the culture of ACU helped feed into her performance.

“My previous school never really had fans in the stands,” Jackson said. “So having people cheering and yelling for you, it was crazy. I feed off of crowd attention and  energy, so I think it the crowd and the student section definitely gave us the momentum in the game.”

Two other Wildcats finished the game in double digits. One was forward Addison Martin, who had 11 points with nine rebounds. Meanwhile, guard Bella Earle brought in her first double-double of the season with 12 points matched by 12 rebounds. Even with all the fresh faces, according to Earle, they already are clicking and working well together.

“We have great team chemistry,” Earle said. “My teammates did a really great job amd were really encouraging and praising to each other. All of them are very versatile, and they all bring different things to the team, so this year will be interesting and will keep people on their toes.”

By the end of the night, all of Goodenough’s squad saw minutes and scored at least once. With seeing those numbers, Goodenough is looking to continue the growth of her team.

“We have a lot of potential to have a lot of players score in every game,” Goodenough said. “We want a style of play where we’ve got good inside looks as well as outside looks. I’m also pleased with the way our team shared the ball and we were ready to shoot when we had open shots. We’re ready to pass to our best players when they were open, ready to drive and try to get shots in the paint.”

Next, ACU head to Houston to face off against Conference-USA team, Rice University, in the Tudor Fieldhouse. The game will tip off on Sunday at 2 p.m. and the game will stream live on C-USA TV.