ABILENE – In a duel between two of the top players in the Lone Star Conference, it was Tarleton State freshman guard Peyton Adamson and her TexAnns who got the best of ACU sophomore guard Mack Lankford and the Wildcats in an LSC game Saturday at Moody Coliseum.
Adamson scored a career-high 28 points – burying 7 of 9 3-point attempts in the process – out-dueling Lankford and her 31 points as the TexAnns remained unbeaten in conference play with a 90-74 victory.
The win pushes the TexAnns to 11-5 overall and 8-0 in the LSC, while the Wildcats fall to 7-8 and 2-7. The Wildcats will be back in action Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. when they host rival Angelo State at Moody Coliseum. Those two teams will meet again next Saturday in San Angelo.
Both teams were hampered by foul trouble as Tarleton State senior guard Shelby Adamson and ACU senior post
Kelsey Smith each had four fouls. Shelby Adamson scored just nine points while playing just 16 minutes after picking two early fouls in each half, and Smith had 18 points in just 22 minutes while working around four fouls of her own.
The turning point of the contest came near the midway point of the second half when ACU's
Sarah Reno hit a jumper to cut Tarleton State's lead to 62-58 with 13:01 to play. Morgan Stehling then committed a turnover to give the ball right back to the Wildcats.
But Lankford – who moments earlier had hit an off-balance jumper – missed a jumper at the 12:31 mark and Stehling grabbed the defensive reound. Lisa Parker then buried a 3-pointer with 12:18 to play on an assist from Cheyenne Berry to make it 65-58 and that gave the TexAnns the breathing room they needed.
ACU was able to cut the lead back to six points on two more occasions – the last at 69-63 with 10:20 to play on a layup by
Shelby Shipley – but that was as close as the Wildcats would get the rest of the way.
Peyton Adamson did most of her scoring as she hit 5 of 7 3-pointers on her way to 22 points in the first 20 minutes. Her scoring helped Tarleton rally from as much as a six-point deficit to take as much as a 12-point first-half lead. Saturday's game marked the third time this season that Peyton Adamson has hit seven 3-pointers in a game and pushes her league-leading season total to 46.
For Lankford, her 31 points are her sixth career 30-point game and second this season. She played 35 minutes in her most extensive action after suffering a left shoulder sprain in ACU's win at Eastern New Mexico on Dec. 17. Since then she missed five straight games and then returned to the lineup last Wednesday night as she scored seven points in eight minutes of ACU's win at Texas A&M-Commerce.
Lankford finished with those 31 points to go along with six rebounds, two assists and three steals.
