KINGSVILLE – The ACU Wildcats followed up their one-point win over West Texas A&M on Wednesday with another big win on Saturday as they whipped Texas A&M-Kingsville, 82-64, at the Steinke P.E. Center.
The win pushes the ACU women to 9-13 overall and 6-4 in the Lone Star Conference South Division as they remain 1.5 games ahead of fifth-place Midwestern State (4-5 in the LSC South) with four games to play. Kingsville, meanwhile, falls to 3-19 and 1-9. ACU will be back in action Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. when it hosts Incarnate Word in a "home" game at McMurry's Kimbrell Arena.
After falling behind 5-0, the res of the game was all Wildcats, and it turned shortly before the first media timeout. With ACU trailing 6-2 with 17:08 left in the first half,
Kelsey Smith and Mack Lankford hit back-to-back jumpers to knot the game at 6-6 with 16:36 left in the half.
Then freshmen
Renata Marquez hit back-to-back 3-pointers before Lankford hit another 3-pointer with 14:13 to play in the half to make it 15-9. The Wildcats' lead would never be less than six points the rest of the way as they totally dominated play. ACU finished the first half on a 9-0 run to push the lead from 38-24 to 47-24 at the break.
The lead hit a game-high 30 points at the 14:46 mark when Smith drilled a 3-pointer to make it 62-32. The Wildcats controlled the game from there on out as they swept the season series from the Javelinas.
Lankford – the leading scorer in the LSC South – led all scorers with 21 points to go along with seven assists, while Smith finished with a double-double with 19 points and 16 rebounds.
Hillari Adam finished with 11 points in 19 minutes off the bench.
ACU out-rebounded the Lady Javelinas, 64-36, and shot 44.7 percent from the field compared to just 28.9 percent for the Lady Javs. ACU also hit 50 percent of its shots from 3-point range (10 of 20).
