CANYON – West Texas A&M center Jamie Simmons scored 27 points and pulled down 15 rebounds Wednesday night as the Lady Buffs knocked off ACU, 78-64, in a Lone Star Conference South Division women's basketball game at the First United Bank Center.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 4-11 overall and 1-2 in the LSC South, while the Lady Buffs improve to 10-6 and 3-0. ACU will be back in action Saturday when it returns to Moody Coliseum to host Texas A&M-Kingsville at 2 p.m.
ACU – which beat the Lady Buffs twice last season – started well, jumping out to a 12-6 lead and led 16-14 with 10:38 left in the first half after a jumper by
Cecilee Perez. But that would be the last lead in the game for the Lady Buffs, who ripped off an 10-0 run to take a 24-16 lead with 7:26 left in the half.
Simmons had four points in the run, which ended with a jumper by Ashley Leven. ACU wouldn't get any closer than six points the rest of the way and spent the entire second half trying to come back from a double-digit deficit.
Simmons was one of two Lady Buffs in double figures in scoring as she hit 12 of 22 shots from the field and 3 of 3 from the line for her 27 points. She had 15 of WT's 46 rebounds as the Lady Buffs out-rebounded ACU 46-31. Freshman Casey Land added 15 points and nine assists for the Lady Buffs.
ACU freshman Mack Lankford finished with a team-high 15 points, while
Kelsey Smith was 6 of 8 from the field for 14 points. Senior
Autumn Whitaker had 13 points and a team-high five rebounds.
