SAN ANTONIO – Facing the end of the competitive portion of their season with a loss, the ACU Wildcats posted their best half of basketball of the season Wednesday night in a 76-59 win over Incarnate Word in a critical Lone Star Conference women's game at the McDermott Center.
The win keeps ACU's hopes for a berth in the LSC Post-Season Tournament alive as the Wildcats improve to 10-13 overall and 5-12 in the LSC. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are now 12-12 and 7-11 after the loss.
The Wildcats are now 1.5 games out of the eighth spot in the standings with three games to play. The top eight teams in the conference at the end of the regular season will reach the post-season tournament, which begins the last week of February in Allen.
ACU will return to action Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts Texas A&M-Kingsville in a critical game for both teams at Moody Coliseum. The Lady Javelinas will enter the game at 7-11 in league play, while the Wildcats will carry that 5-12 league mark into the game. A win or loss for either will be huge at this late stage of the season as both make a push for a spot in the tournament.
The two teams were tied 34-34 at halftime, but the Wildcats were able to pull away in the second half, outscoring the Cardinals 42-25 in the final 20 minutes. ACU shot 46.4 percent from the field (13 of 28) to just 28.6 percent (10 of 35) for Incarnate Word. ACU also hit 14 of 21 from the free throw line in the second half, while the Cardinals were just 1 of 3 from the line in the final 20 minutes. ACU, in fact, was 17 of 28 from the line on the night while UIW was a meager 5 of 9.
The Wildcats didn't really have a firm grasp on Wednesday night's game until the final five minutes when they were finally able to push their lead from single digits into double digits.
Leading just 60-55 with 4:29 to play,
Cecilee Perez hit two free throws to make it 62-55, and 55 seconds later,
Renata Marquez buried a jumper to push the lead to 64-55 with 3:34 to play.
At the 1:47 mark,
Kelsey Smith – who was huge with 21 points, 19 rebounds, five assists and three steals – buried a jumper to make it a 66-55 game. The Wildcats then hit 8 of 10 from the line – and Mack Lankford hit a layup – in the final 1:24 of the contest to seal the crucial victory.
Lankford poured in 25 points as she led both teams in scoring, hitting 9 of 19 shots from the field, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Marquez had a solid game, scoring 15 points and pulling down five rebounds to go along with one assist and four steals.
