WICHITA FALLS – ACU freshman
Hillari Adam broke a tie with a pair of free throws with 1.9 seconds to play Saturday night to help the Wildcats knock off Midwestern State, 80-77, as they picked up their first Lone Star Conference South Division win of the season.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 4-10 overall and 1-1 in the LSC South, while the loss drops the Mustangs to 4-10 and 0-2. ACU will return to action Wednesday at 6 p.m. when it takes on West Texas A&M in Canyon.
The Wildcats trailed Saturday night's game 46-44 at halftime, but outscored the Mustangs 20-7 in the first 9:30 of the second half to take a 64-53 lead. Darrein Wiliams capped the run with a pair of free throws at the 10:30 mark.
ACU's second-half lead would eventually grow to as many as 14 points (69-55) with 7:58 left after Mack Lankford hit a fast-break jumper on an assist from Williams.
But Midwestern wouldn't die as the Mustangs slowly whittled away at the lead. The ACU lead was 76-69 before Nolisha Markham buried a 3-pointer with 2:44 to play to cut the Wildcat advantage to just 76-72.
With 1:07 to play, Savannah Carver hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 77-75, and then she hit a jumper with 18 seconds left to tie the game at 77-77.
Lankford then missed a 3-pointer for the Wildcats with five seconds to play, but Katiya Jackson was whistled for a foul on Wall with 1.9 seconds to play in the game. She then hit both free throws to give ACU the lead.
Emily Miller finished it off with one free throw with 0.9 seconds to play after an MSU turnover.
The win for the Wildcats is just the second for the women's program in Wichita Falls since 1999, although ACU has won two of the last three meetings between the teams in Wichita Falls.
Lankford led the Wildcats with 19 points, while senior guard
Autumn Whitaker scored 17 points, the only two ACU players to score in double figures.