ABILENE – The Wildcats open their 2012-13 Lone Star Conference schedule this week with a visit Wednesday night to West Texas A&M followed by a Saturday home matinee vs. Eastern New Mexico.
Grant Boone will broadcast both games locally on 1280-AM KSLI.
ACU's women's and men's doubleheader vs. Eastern also will be streamed via the ACU Sports page at
SkyboxLive.com starting at 2 p.m.
The Wildcats' (1-1) tip off against the Lady Buffs (2-4) at the First United Bank Center is scheduled for 6 p.m.
ACU hasn't played since suffering a disappointing 74-71 at Moody Coliseum nearly two weeks ago vs. Texas-Permian Basin, during which the Wildcats lost a 12-point lead in the second half. After shooting 50 percent from 3-point range to start the game, ACU finished 2 of 14 and was further crippled by a dozen turnovers and poor shooting from the free-throw line. The Falcons converted those ACU turnovers into 16 points.
Senior
Kelsey Smith pulled down 12 rebounds vs. UT-Permian Basin and was one of three Wildcats to share the team lead in points with 13. Freshman
Kynzie Newman finished right behind them with 12 points off the bench.
Smith leads ACU in several categories through the year's first two games, including scoring (13.0) and rebounding (9.5). She is tied for the team lead with three steals and is one block behind
Emily Miller with two.
Renata Marquez has given the Wildcats an average of 11.5 points per game, while Newman ranks third on the team in scoring with 10.0.
The Lady Buffs are coming off a 79-51 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State Saturday in Canyon that dropped their season record to 2-4. Earlier in the weekend, however, they dismantled McMurry, 82-23, and held the War Hawks to just three second-half points on 1 of 18 shooting from the field and one free throw.
West Texas A&M was plagued by poor shooting in its loss to SWOSU, shooting just 16 of 67 from the field (.239), 3 of 20 (.150) from beyond the arc and 16 of 21 (.762) from the line.
Lacee Logan and Devin Griffin lead WT in scoring with 12.2 points per game, while Chontiquah White is its top rebounder with 7.7 per contest.
The Lady Buffs have a considerable lead in its all-time series vs. the Wildcats, but last year's sweep was their first vs. ACU since 2006-07. ACU swept WT as recently as 2009-10 and split its two game series in 2010-11.
Against the Zias, however, ACU has dominated the series for the better part of the decade and has won its last 14 meetings dating back to February of 2001. The Wildcats lead the all-time series 43-12.
Eastern New Mexico begins its week at 0-4 and will first face Angelo State on Wednesday before taking on the Wildcats. The Zias have been outscored by an average of 23 points per game, which includes a 73-35 loss to Grand Canyon and 30-point defeat to Southern Nazarene. Eastern lost by 18 points Saturday to Wayland Baptist, 66-48.
Hannah Altheide leads the Zias with an 8.8 scoring average and is 21 points away from 400 in her career.
Information from GoEasternAthletics.com and GoBuffsGo.com was used in this release.
