ACU to host Tarleton State in doubleheader
ACU men, women open crossover play against TSU
ABILENE -- The ACU men's and women's basketball teams will open Lone Star Conference crossover action Thursday night at home with a doubleheader against rival Tarleton State.
The women's game is set to tipoff at 6 p.m. from Moody Coliseum, followed by the men's game at 8 p.m. Both games can be heard on KSLI 1280 AM, or on the internet at www.tsrnsports.com. The men's team will also be in action Saturday when it hosts Southwestern Assemblies of God at 4 p.m.in a non-conference game.
Thursday's women's game features a pair of teams picked to finish in the middle of the pack in their respective LSC divisions.
Tarleton State, which enters Thursday's game at 2-1 overall, was picked to finish fourth in the LSC North Division, while the 3-2 Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in the LSC South Division.
ACU has won four straight over the TexAnns, including a pair of games last year -- a 57-53 win in San Angelo in a non-conference tilt, and then 69-66 in a hard-fought game in Stephenville.
The Wildcats enter Thursday's game coming off a split of a pair of games at last weekend's ACU-CHI Classic at Moody Coliseum. ACU whipped Lincoln (Mo.), 79-58, last Friday night before falling 84-71 to No. 2-ranked Drury (Mo.).
In the win over Lincoln, senior forward Stephanie Riles posted a career-high 40 points, the seventh-best single-game scoring effort in ACU women's basketball history. In the loss to Drury, junior shooting guard Ashley King appeared to have broken out of a shooting slump by hitting 7 of 14 shots from the field, including 3 of 6 from 3-point range, on her way to a team-high 21 points.
Riles leads the Wildcats in scoring at 15.3 points per game, while King is averaging 13.8 ppg and junior center Jamie Boles is averaging 11.2 ppg. Riles also leads the club in rebounding at 5.5 rpg, while Boles is pulling down 5.0 rpg.
The TexAnns haven't played since Nov. 23 when they went to Denton and beat Texas Woman's, 71-63, behind Katie Crawford's 21 points. Junior forward Amanda Franklin leads the team in scoring at 14.5 ppg, while Crawford is second on the club at 12.0 ppg. Senior center TaNesiah Lamb leads the club in rebounding at 8.0 rpg to go along with 7.0 ppg.
On the men's side, ACU will try to snap an eight-game losing streak against the Texans, who fell out of the national top 25 this week after being ranked in the last 24 straight polls. The Wildcatshaven't beaten Tarleton State since a 69-62 win over the Texans on Feb. 7, 1999.
ACU enters Thursday night's contest coming off Monday night's thrilling 68-67 road win over a much-improved St. Edward's team. The Wildcats used an Hakim Rasul layup with less than three seconds to play to nip the Hilltoppers.
Rasul, a 6-6 junior forward who transferred to ACU from Midland College, leads the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding at 25.5 ppg and 9.3 rpg, just a few percentage points shy of averaging a double-double in the early going. Rasul has been effective both shooting the ball (39 of 78 from the floor) and getting to the free throw line (37 free throws in just four games). He's also been a key part of an ACU defense that has held opponents to just 38 percent shooting (104 of 272) through the season's first four games.
Senior guard David Baxter -- who might have to play point guard Thursday in the expected absence of Joe Carr, who suffered a high right ankle sprain Monday night -- is averaging 15.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, and has already hit 11 of 29 3-point attempts (37.9 percent) through four games. He scored 12 points and dished out seven assists in the win over St. Edward's, and he is averaging 5.0 assists per game.
The Wildcats will be without the services of junior transfer guard Dionte Gill for the rest of the season after he left the team to return home to Tucson, Ariz. Gill, who was averaging 7.3 ppg in three games, was homesick and has returned home to finish his degree at the University of Arizona.
The Texans -- picked to win the LSC North Division title -- are 2-1 on the season, but enter Thursday night's game coming off a 69-60 road loss to St. Mary's on Nov. 23. Tarleton State is off to a hot start offensively, having hit 78 of 161 shots from the floor for a 48.4 shooting percentage early. However, the normally stingy Texans are allowing opponents to shoot 43 percent.
Senior forward David Stephens leads the team in scoring at 18.7 ppg, while pulling down a team-high 6.7 rebounds per game. Junior guard LaShon Sheffield, who transferred from Walters State Community College, is averaging 15.3 points, while junior forward Chris Dixon is averaging 9.3 points per game.
