The Wildcats experienced their first back-to-back losses this season, falling to the Cardinals at home Wednesday, 71-65.
The Wildcats’ turnover problem resurfaced in the game, which quickly became one of the most prominent factors in their loss. ACU turned the ball over 15 times in the first half. At the end of the night, ACU finished with 23 turnovers while the Cardinals scored 25 points off the Wildcats’ mistakes.
This problem was something that head coach Julie Goodenough saw as a significant factor toward ACU’s loss.
“Our turnovers killed us in the first half,” said Goodenough. We should have had the lead at halftime, but we didn’t because of that. Careless turnovers in the second half prevented us from really getting on runs as well.”
Leading the charge offensively for the Wildcats was senior forward Alyssa Adams. In the eighth double-double of her career, she scored 17 points. To finish off her double-double, Adams led both teams in rebounding with 22, setting a new career-high.
“She’s playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Goodenough. “She’s waited her turn because, for three years, she played under five good players. Now she’s in the starting five, and she’s done a pretty consistent job with rebounding throughout the year.”
Goodenough also acknowledged that the Wildcats had a lot of trouble defensively, and Lamar exploited that to their advantage.
“When we had defensive breakdowns, Lamar found open players and hit big shots,” said Goodenough. “They hit some shots that were uncharacteristic for them, but that was based on our defensive lapses. But I give Lamar a lot of credit; they played really well tonight.”
The Wildcats will have a second chance to win against Lamar on Saturday in Beaumont. The game will tip-off at 2 p.m. and will broadcast live on ESPN+ and 102.7 F.M., The Bear.
“We’ll watch a lot of video the next couple of days and make some corrections,” said Goodenough. “We’ve faced Lamar in person, and we understand how quick they are off the dribble and how strong their right-hand drives are and how they are good at offensive rebounding. So it will be important that we make some corrections going into Beaumont on Saturday.”
