ABILENE – The Abilene Christian basketball teams head to Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday afternoon for a Lone Star Conference doubleheader. The women's game will tip-off a 1 p.m. with the men's contest scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
These are must-win games for all four teams involved, as both women's teams are a combined 1-11 against conference opponents, while the men's teams are a combined 2-9.
The ACU men's team (6-7,0-5 LSC) got off to a fine 5-2 start, but is 1-5 over the past month, and recently followed a gutsy 85-82 win over Dallas Baptist with a disappointing 70-65 loss to Incarnate Word. Even though four Wildcats scored in double figures, they only made 2-of-11 3-pointers and missed 7-of-22 free throws.
Zach Williams – ACU's leading scorer with 13.8 points per game – was held to five points on 2-of-5 shooting in 22 minutes of play.
The ACU women's team (6-6, 1-5 LSC) also suffered a major setback vs. the Cardinals, considering how well they played on the road last week at West Texas A&M. The Wildcats entered halftime down three points but missed 11 of its first 12 shots of the second half and committed six turnovers as Incarnate Word took off on a 24-4 run.
The Wildcats committed 21 turnovers in the game and shot just 40 percent from the field (22-of-55), including just 28.6 percent from 3-point range (2-of-7). Kelsey Smith led ACU wit 19 points and six rebounds.
Losers of 10 straight games, the A&M-Kingsville women's team (1-11, 0-6 LSC) is being outscored by close to 17 points per game while being outshot .440 to .341, and their assist-to-turnover ratio is a microscopic 0.6 (136 to 233). The Javelinas also are hitting on fewer than 25 percent of their 3-point attempts and their free-throw percentage is less than .700.
Inekka Stevenson is the Javelina's best player on both sides of the ball, averaging a team-best 11.0 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
The Kingsville men (7-7, 2-4 LSC) began the year at 7-3, but stumbled at the start of conference play, losing four straight in between wins vs. Eastern New Mexico and Angelo State.
The Javelinas are equipped with two top-line scoring threats in Ashton Brown and Robert Williams, both of who are contributing more than 15.0 points per game and shooting better than 50 percent from the floor. Williams also is the team's top rebounder with 6.5 per game.
The Wildcats also need to carefully guard 3-point shooter Derryl Nash, who has already tossed up 76 long-range attempts this season.
Live stats links for both games can be found on the calendar and schedule pages at ACUSports.com.
