ACU/A&M-International Live Stats | Live Video
ABILENE – The Abilene Christian women's basketball team officially begins its 2011-12 season Thursday night with a 6 p.m. match at Texas A&M-International of the Heartland Conference.
This week's meeting is only the second between the regional rivals and first since the 2007-08 campaign when the Wildcats (0-0) defeated Dustdevils (0-2), 90-66, at Moody Coliseum.
ACU will serve as A&M-International's fourth straight Lone Star Conference opponent when they meet later this week. The Dustdevils have already fallen to Angelo State (76-69) and Midwestern State (98-76), and are scheduled to tip off against Incarnate Word Monday at 7 p.m.
Desteney Howard currently leads the Dustdevils in scoring with 11.5 points per game, and the team as a whole is shooting 39 percent from the field, including 44 percent from 3-point range. On the boards, however, International is being outrebounded by 9.5 rebounds per game.
Although the games didn't count, ACU begins this week looking to shake off a pair of exhibition losses to Houston Baptist and Lubbock Christian. The Wildcats lost 75-67 to the Huskies on the road, and then fell at home to the Lady Chaps, 80-73.
ACU outscored the Huskies 45-40 in the second half, but it wasn't enough to erase a 35-22 halftime deficit.
Sophomore Mack Lankford led the Wildcats with 19 points, while freshman
Sadie Dickinson had 11 points and
Cecilee Perez had 10 points for the Wildcats.
Against Lubbock Christian, ACU used a 9-2 run that trimmed their deficit to 55-50 with 10:30 to play, but the Lady Chaps immediately answered with the game-changing 15-6 run.
Kelsey Smith led the way for the Wildcats with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while
Renata Marquez had 15 points. Freshman
Paige Parliament had 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench for ACU.
A&M-International will provide live stats and video for Thursday night's game, the links for which can be found on the
women's basketball schedule page at ACUSports.com.
