ACU falls to MSU
1/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Wildcats fall to Lady Indians, 76-71
ACU drops second straight LSC South Division game
WICHITA FALLS – Midwestern State grabbed a four-point lead midway through the second half Thursday night and would not relinquish it in a 76-71 Lone Star Conference South Division win over ACU at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
The loss is the second straight division loss for the Wildcats, who are beginning a crucial five-game road swing that will continue Saturday at 3 p.m. in Denton against Texas Woman's. The Wildcats, now 10-9 overall and 1-3 in the LSC South, will be at Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas-Kingsville next Thursday and Saturday, respectively, followed by a Feb. 11 game at Angelo State.
The Indians, meanwhile, are still perfect in the LSC South at 5-0 (14-4 overall) with the win, and will host co-LSC South Division leader Angelo State (16-1 and 4-0) in a key early battle for the division lead.
ACU, which trailed by as many as eight points in the first half, battled back to tie the game at 37-37 at halftime. The game see-sawed back and forth for the first nine minutes of the second half with neither taking more than a two-point lead.
Finally, though, Midwestern put a bucket, a defensive stop and another bucket together to grab a four-point lead when Kristin Ramsey hit a jumper with 11:13 to give the Lady Indians a 55-51 lead. The Indians were able to stretch the lead out to six points, but that's as large as the lead would get.
ACU was able to get the lead down to two points (69-67 on a free throw by Jodi Hellums) with 4:27 left, but ACU would get no closer.
Midwestern State's Octavia Holmes hit two free throws with 1:32 to play to give her team a 76-71 lead, and neither team would score in the final 92 seconds. ACU was 0 for 3 from the field and 0 for 2 from the free throw line in the final 1:21 of the contest.
The loss negated a superior effort by ACU's interior duo of Melanie Carter and Lynsie Blau. Carter had 28 points on 9 of 12 shooting from the field (10 of 10 from the free throw line), while Blau had 17 points and nine rebounds on 8 of 13 shooting from the field.
However, no other ACU player scored in double figures as Ashley King was the third-leading scorer with seven points.
