ABILENE – The Abilene Christian basketball teams will alternate games on the Moody Coliseum hardcourt this week beginning with a 7 p.m. men's contest vs. Paul Quinn College Thursday followed by a Saturday doubleheader featuring the women vs. Texas Woman's at 2 p.m. and the men against Arlington Baptist at 4 p.m.
Saturday's twinbill will be broadcast locally on KSLI 1280 AM and over the World Wide Web on YOETV.org, which can be accessed easily by clicking the multimedia tab on ACUSports.com. Austin Gwin will handle the play-by-play duties.
The Wildcats' men's team (8-10) can reach the .500 mark with a pair of wins, but can't make up ground in the Lone Star Conference standings where its currently tied for eighth (of 10 teams) with Angelo State at 2-8. ACU is 2-2 over its past four games, which includes a split with the Rams. The Wildcats won the first meeting at home, 79-64, but then lost the rematch in San Angelo, 65-59.
Zach Williams (12.2),
Antonio Bell (12.1),
Kendall Durant (11.8) and
Armani Williams (11.1) continue to lead ACU in scoring while
Eric Kibi (6.4) and
Dosh Simms (6.3) have been the leading rebounders.
Armani Williams netted 22 points in the win last week vs. Angelo State, which included a perfect 10-for-10 performance from the free-throw line.
ACU's women's team recently endured a series sweep at the hands of the Rambelles, dropping its overall and conference marks to 7-10 and 2-9. The Wildcats begin the week in 10th place but only a game behind Eastern New Mexico (3-8) for the eighth and final playoff spot for the upcoming Lone Star Conference Championship.
Mack Lankford totaled 51 points between the two Angelo State losses in lifting her season scoring average to a conference best 19.7 points per game. Kelsey Smith currently ranks sixth in the LSC with 14.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, and is third with 2.1 blocks per contest.
Texas Woman's (9-7, 4-6 LSC) begins its second half of the conference schedule with a home game against Angelo State on Wednesday night before arriving in Abilene.
Jessica Hanna leads the Pioneers on both offense and defense with 15.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, and has a team best 14 blocks. Junior Brittney Nuzum ranks second on the team in averaging 13.3 points per game, while Cambria Smith is second in the nation (NCAA Division II) in assists with 121.
Smith, who has five or more assists in 14 of the 16 games, is averaging 7.6 assists per game and trails the national leader Christine Duffy from Southern New Hampshire (7.8) by 0.2.
Texas Woman's won its first game vs. ACU earlier this year on Dec. 3, 74-68, with Hanna leading all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting.
Information from TWUAthletics.com was used in this release.
