Wildcats KO arch-rival, West Texas A&M, 81-77
1/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Wildcats KO arch-rival, West Texas A&M, 81-77
ACU's third LSC South Division win spoils first game in new arena
Box scoreCANYON -- West Texas A&M had the big crowd it wanted to open the new WTAM Events Center, but the ACU Wildcats sent all 4,941 of them home unhappy Saturday night as they beat their arch-rival, 81-77, in an important Lone Star Conference South Division game.
The victory by the Wildcats -- keyed down the stretch by senior Brenda Jacoby and sophomore Melanie Carter -- was the second straight for the Wildcats, who improve to 8-9 overall and 3-2 in the LSC South. The win pushes the Wildcats into third place in the LSC South. Tarleton State -- which plays at ACU at 6 p.m. Thursday -- lost Saturday and is tied for first with Texas A&M-Kingsville at 4-2. Angelo State is alone in second place, one game in front of the Wildcats at 4-1.
ACU, which led by 14 at halftime and by 16 early in the second half, found itself in a 46-46 game with 13:43 to play after a furious Lady Buff rally was capped by a Faith Boyd layup. The Lady Buffs continued to their run, eventually taking a 55-50 lead with 9:20 to go on a 3-pointer by Lauren Martin.
But the Wildcats wouldn't die as they went on a 9-2 run over the next two minutes to re-gain a 59-57 lead with 7:39 to play when Jacoby hit a 3-pointer.
"We just had to re-capture our aggressiveness," ACU head coach Wayne Williams said. "They did a great job of turning up their pressure defensively and attacking us. It took us a while to get untracked."
It was a nip-and-tuck affair from that point until the end of the game. Carter took over the down the stretch, though, scoring 10 of the Wildcats final 19 points, including four straight free throws in the final 50 seconds. ACU, in fact, was 8 of 10 from the line in the final 2:37 of the game, including one by Leah Wilson that gave ACU the final 81-77 margin.
"I told the girls before the game that this was a big one for our program," Williams said. "I told them we needed to win this game for all the past ACU teams that, because of their hard work, established this intense rivalry."
