SAN ANTONIO – ACU put together one of its best performances of the season Wednesday night as the Wildcats knocked off Incarnate Word, 74-58, in a Lone Star Conference South Division game at the McDermott Center.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 6-11 overall and 3-2 in the LSC South, while the Cardinals fall to 6-11 and 2-3. ACU is now alone in third place in the LSC South and will return home Saturday to take on Eastern New Mexico at 2 p.m. in another key LSC South contest.
ACU led by as many as 11 points in the first half before settling for a 27-25 halftime lead. Incarnate Word, however, seized the early momentum in the second half, pushing to a 40-37 lead at the 13:57 mark before ACU answered on a 3-pointer by
Kelsey Smith with 13:36 to play, tying the game at 40-40.
That was the beginning of a 16-4 ACU run that pushed the Wildcats' lead to 53-44 with 9:37 left in the game. Freshmen Mack Lankford and
Renata Marquez each had four points in the run, while Smith capped the run with a jumper.
After the Cardinals whittled the deficit down to five points (53-48) with 8:51 to play, Marquez keyed another run that pushed ACU's lead to 15 points. Marquez scored eight points in a 10-5 ACU run that pushed the Wildcats' lead to 63-48 with 6:42 left.
The Wildcats' lead would not drop below 10 points the rest of the way as they won the first LSC game between ACU and Incarnate Word.
ACU out-rebounded Incarnate Word 58-37, shot 46 percent from the field (29 of 63) compared to just 32.9 percent (23 of 70) for Incarnate Word and committed just 16 turnovers.
Smith and Lankford each had 20 points for the Wildcats, while Marquez had 15 points off the bench and
Autumn Whitaker added 11 for ACU.
