ABILENE -- The Abilene Christian basketball teams travel to Texas A&M-Commerce this Wednesday night for a Lone Star Conference doubleheader against the Lions. Both games will be broadcast locally by
Grant Boone on KSLI 1280 AM starting five minutes prior to the women's scheduled 6 p.m. tip-off. The men's game will begin approximately two hours later.
It's the same story this week as it was last week for both ACU squads which are very hungry for a conference victory. The men's team enters this week 6-8 overall and 0-6 vs. the league, while the women are 6-7 and 1-6. Each side lost at home last week to Incarnate Word followed by stunning defeats at Texas A&M-Kingsville. The Javelinas' combined conference record heading into last Saturday's game was 2-10.
On paper, the Lions don't appear to be much more of a threat than the Javelinas, although the men (6-7, 1-4 LSC) have won four of its last five, including three non-conference victories in addition to an 88-77 triumph over Eastern New Mexico As for the Commerce women's team (1-11, 0-6 LSC), its dropped eight straight while being outscored by an average of 21.1 points per game. West Texas A&M beat them last Wednesday by 73 points, which was followed by Saturday's 17-point loss to the Zias.
Danielle Dixon is leading the Lions with 14.3 points per game on 33.7 percent shooting, and Breanna Harris has nearly averaged a double-double with 10.3 points and 9.5 boards per game.
Despite receiving a great effort from Kelsey Smith (28 pts., 10 reb.) in its loss to Kingsville, ACU again was plagued by poor shooting and costly turnovers. The Wildcats committed 28 turnovers against the Javelinas, marking the sixth time this year ACU has committed at least 20 turnovers in a game, in addition to shooting just 43.6 percent (27 of 62) from the field.
Smith's performance pushed her season point total to a team best 186 and raised her per-game averages to 14. 3 (pts.) and 6.8 (reb.). She's also tops among the conference leaders with 28 blocks (2.2 per game).
Zach Williams continues to lead the ACU men's team in scoring with 13.6 points per game despite being held to five points vs. the Cardinals and 11 in the loss at Kingsville, which was close until the Javelinas went on a 26-8 run over a span of 11 minutes in the second half.
Dosh Simms was ACU's leading scorer vs. Kingsville with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, but the Wildcats couldn't overcome the Javelinas 10-of-22 shooting from 3-point range, nor their 26 buckets from the free-throw line.
Commerce's strong play of late has helped it rebound from a 2-6 start, and its mid-December three-game winning streak over Southern Arkansas, Harding and Henderson State has served as a season best. Desmond King leads the Lions with a 15.8 scoring average, and is also their leading rebounder with 5.7 boards per game.
Commerce's Brad Hambrick is second on the team in scoring with 13.5 ppg and has made 46.5 percent (33-of-71) of his 3-point attempts.
Live stat links for both games can be found via the home and schedule pages at ACUSports.com.
