ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats shot just 42 percent from the floor and committed 20 turnovers Saturday as they lost to Midwestern State, 90-78, at Moody Coliseum in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Wildcats' second straight loss to end the regular season sends ACU into the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament at 11-16 overall and 8-6 in the LSC South Division. ACU will be the No. 4 seed from the LSC South and will play LSC North Division champion Northeastern State at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in a first-round game.
Midwestern State finished off its season in style, grabbing a 43-41 lead at halftime on a Jazman Patterson jumper with one second left in the first half and then never trailing in the second half. After ACU's Mack Lankford tied the game 43-43 with 19:43 left in the game, the Mustangs ran off an 11-4 spurt to go up by seven points (54-47) with 16:58 left in the game.
ACU answered, though, with an 8-2 run to cut the MSU lead to 56-55 with 15:12 to play. Senior
Autumn Whitaker, playing her last home game as a Wildcat, had five points in the run, which turned out to be ACU's last hurrah in the game.
After Lankford's free throw with 15:12 left cut the lead to one point, the Mustangs answered with a run of their own, outscoring ACU 11-1 to push their lead to 67-56 with 11 minutes left in the game. ACU would not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way as Midwestern State won at Moody Coliseum for the first time since 1992.
Lankford led the Wildcats with 25 points, while
Kelsey Smith had 16 points,
Renata Marquez 13 and
Cecilee Perez and Whitaker with 10 each.
