ABILENE – Guards Hunter Cooley, Deonna Moore, Randall Moore and Anita Vigil have been voted by Wildcat fans onto the ACU Lone Star Conference Era Starting 5 men's and women's teams.
This decorated collection of players combined for 6,175 points, four all-America awards, four all-district citations and close to two dozen Lone Star Conference postseason honors through three distinct eras.
Cooley and Vigil both represented Abilene Christian through the late 1980's and into the early 90's, while Deonna Moore was a showcase player for the Wildcat reign of the mid 1980's. Randall Moore was part of four winning teams in the late 1970's and still holds the school record for most assists in a career, season and single game.
More than 2,100 votes were cast during two months of polling, which took place both online and in-person at Moody Coliseum from Nov. 29 to Jan. 29. The ballots featured only those student-athletes who played for the Wildcats during their time in the Lone Star Conference (1973-2013).
The ACU men's basketball team began competing within the league under head coach Willard Tate in 1973-74, while the women came aboard in 1982-83 under the direction of Burl McCoy.
The four Starting 5 forwards plus the Sixth Man and Woman – as chosen by members of the ACU Athletics Department – will be revealed on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The top male and female vote getter will additionally be crowned Most Outstanding Player.
Melanie Carter and Andrew Prince were announced last week as the Starting 5 centers.
The Starting 5 teams will be formally introduced during ACU's doubleheader vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday, March 2. Games take place at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.
The poll was conducted in celebration of ACU's 40th and final year as a member of the Lone Star Conference. The Wildcats' move to NCAA Division I and the Southland Conference takes effect on July 1.
Hunter Cooley
Hunter Cooley is best remembered for his all-America campaign of 1991-92, in which he scored 588 points and helped resurrect a program that went winless without him the season prior.
After missing all of 1990-91, a resurgent Cooley excelled in every aspect of his game under new first-year head coach Tony Mauldin. Under their leadership, the Wildcats won 17 games and stunned the Lone Star Conference with a third-place finish of 7-5. Cooley led ACU in scoring with 20.3 points per game to go along with 6.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He also led the LSC in free throw percentage for third time in his career at .886.
Cooley regularly wowed the crowds that season at Moody Coliseum, where he recorded three of the highest scoring games in the building's history. He netted 37 points in December of 1991 vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor and 36 in a 1992 win over Cameron, but during a Feb. 6, 1992 game vs. Angelo State, he scored a career high and then-coliseum record of 42 points.
Cooley made 15 of 19 field goals against the Rams and was a perfect 7 of 7 from the free-throw line. His Coliseum record stood for almost 13 years when David Baxter broke it by two points during a January 2005 game vs. Angelo State.
Cooley was recognized at the conference and national level at the end of his final season, as he received a spot on the all-LSC first team and was named all-America honorable mention by
NCAA D-II Bulletin.
A native of nearby Hawley, Cooley left ACU as its ninth all-time leading scorer with 1,395 points. His off-the-court honors included two academic all-conference awards.
Deonna (Moore) Shake
Deonna (Moore) Shake is one of the greatest “winners” in ACU women's basketball history.
The ACU women have won nine Lone Star Conference basketball championships in their history, and Shake was part of eight of them either as a player or a coach.
As a guard for the Wildcats from 1982-86, Shake was a three-time first team all-conference player and two-time all-LSC tournament player.
A team captain in 1984-85 and 1985-86, Shake scored 1,287 points in her career. She helped lead ACU?to Lone Star Conference regular-season and post-season tournament titles in each of her four seasons, and she was named all-tournament in 1985 and 1986. Moore was an integral part of the 1984-85 team that made the school's first-ever appearance in the NCAA regional tournament where the Wildcats finished runner-up to Central Missouri State.
Shake served as the Wildcats' assistant coach from 1992-99 and was on the bench in 1995-96 when the Wildcats were ranked No. 1 in the nation, won their only NCAA?Division II?South Central Region championship and reached the NCAA Division II national tournament.
She was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in February 2004.
Randall Moore
Randall Moore was one of the best players on some of the best ACU?men's basketball teams.
Moore, the third-leading scorer in ACU history with 1,698 career points, was a third team NAIA?all-America in 1979-80 when he and teammate Rodney Fedell (2000 ACU?Sports Hall of Fame inductee) led ACU?to the Lone Star Conference title and the NAIA?national tournament.
Moore, who graduated from ACU?in 1980, was not only a great scorer, but was the best distributor of the basketball in school history, and one of the best in the history of the LSC.
In four seasons, Moore dished out a school and LSC?record 789 assists, including 221 in his senior season (1979-80), a mark that still stands as the school and league single-season records. He had 18 assists in a 1976 game against Wayland Baptist, a mark that still stands as both the ACU?and LSC?single-game records.
Moore was a four-time all-conference honoree, including twice being named first team all-LSC?(1978-79 and 1979-80). ACU?was 76-39 in Moore's four years at the point guard position, and the 1979-80 team still holds the school record for wins in a season with 27.
He was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in February 2004.
Anita Vigil
Anita Vigil is one of the great pure scorers in ACU women's basketball history. She completed her career as the second-leading scorer in Wildcat history with 1,795 points between 1987-89 and 1990-92.
Vigil is currently the fourth-leading scorer in ACU history, and she remains the LSC career leader in 3-point field goal percentage at 40.2 percent (174 of 435). She led the Wildcats in scoring four times and paced ACU to the Lone Star Conference regular-season championship as a senior in 1991-92. Vigil was a four-time team MVP, two-time first team Women's Basketball Coaches' Association all-district selection and two-time WBCA-Kodak honorable mention all-America selection.
She was a first team all-LSC selection in 1987-88, 1988-89 (when she led the LSC in scoring at 19.4 points per game) and 1990-91, and she was a second team pick in 1991-92. She scored 601 points as a sophomore in 1988-89 to rank as the 12th-best single-season total in ACU women's basketball history. Vigil missed the 1989-90 season with a knee injury, but she bounced back in 1990-91 by averaging a career-best 20.7 points per game for the Wildcats.
She was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in October 2011.
Lone Star Conference Era Start 5: Position Announcement Dates
Centers: Melanie Carter and Andrew Prince
Guards: Hunter Cooley, Deonna Moore, Randall Moore, and Anita Vigil
Forwards/Sixth Man and Woman: February 27
