ABILENE – ACU freshman Mack Lankford poured in 31 points as the hot-shooting Wildcats won their third straight Lone Star Conference South Division game with an 89-76 win over Eastern New Mexico at Moody Coliseum.
Lankford scored in double figures for the sixth straight time and 14th time this season, and she hit a career-best six 3-pointers to lead ACU to the impressive victory. The 31 points marked the third time this season that Lankford has scored at least 30 points; she scored a career-high 35 vs. Southeastern Oklahoma State on Dec. 20 and had 32 vs. Texas A&M-Commerce on Dec. 4.
Lankford's 31-point effort was highlighted by her career-high six 3-pointers (6 of 11 from behind the arc). As a team, ACU hit a season-best 12 of 28 from beyond the arc (42.9 percent) and committed just 15 turnovers. Senior
Autumn Whitaker added 16 points for the Wildcats and was 4 of 10 from 3-point range.
The Wildcats' win pushes them to 7-11 overall and 4-2 in the LSC South, while the Zias fall to 4-14 and 2-4. ACU – alone in third place in the division – will return to action Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. when it takes on rival Angelo State at the Junell Center in San Angelo. That will be the first of back-to-back games between ACU and Angelo State, who will also play next Saturday at 2 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
ACU never trailed against the Zias as Lankford and Whitaker each scored five points in a 10-3 Wildcat run to start the game. The Wildcats eventually pushed their lead to as much as 17 in the first half and never led by less than two points before settling for a 47-32 halftime lead.
After the Zias were able to trim the ACU lead to 12 points (47-35) at the 17:19 mark of the second half, the Wildcats reeled off seven straight points to push the lead to a game-high 19 points (54-35) at the 16:24 mark. Lankford had two free throws to start the run before Whitaker hit a fastbreak layup and a 3-pointer to cap the short burst.
The win for the Wildcats was their 19th straight over the Zias and pushed them to 48-12 all-time against Eastern New Mexico. ENMU's last win over ACU was Feb. 17, 2001, at Eastern New Mexico (59-53). The last time ENMU beat ACU at Moody Coliseum was Jan. 18, 2001, when the Zias pulled out a 71-59 win.
