DENTON – Texas Woman's built a 12-point halftime lead Saturday afternoon and the Pioneers held on in the second half to knock off ACU, 74-68, in the opening game of Lone Star Conference women's basketball action for the Wildcats at Kitty Magee Arena.
The Pioneers improved to 5-1 overall and 1-1 1in the LSC, while the Wildcats drop to 2-2 and 0-1. ACU will be back in action Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. when it hosts St. Edward's in a non-conference game at Moody Coliseum.
Texas Woman's – the defending LSC champion – buried 8 of 18 3-point shots and shot 46.6 percent from the field, while the Wildcats hit just 2 of 11 from 3-point range and shot just 40.3 percent from the field (25 of 62), including just 7 of 25 (28 percent) in the first half.
The Wildcats trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half, but were able to get the TWU lead down to one point on two occasions (59-58 and 65-64), the final time coming with 2:52 to play on a layup by
Cecilee Perez on a feed from
Renata Marquez.
But the Pioneers responded with a 3-pointer by Brittney Nuzum at the 2:!1 mark before Mack Lankford cut it back to a two-point deficit (68-66) with a layup at the 1:27 mark. Cambria Smith answered 16 seconds later with a layup to push the margin back to four points,
Lankford trimmed the TWU lead to 71-68 with 29 seconds left with a jump, but Tabbatha Thurmond hit a free throw with 22 seconds left, and Jessica Hanna hit a pair of free throws with nine seconds left for the final margin.
Hanna led all scorers with 26 points and 12 rebounds on 10 of 17 shooting from the field. Nuzum added 17 points for the Pioneers.
ACU had four players in double figures, led by
Kelsey Smith, who had 15 points and six rebounds. Freshman
Paige Parliament had 14 points and three rebounds, while Lankford had 12 points and four assists, and Perez had 10 points.
