Abilene Christian's Lone Star Conference Starting 5 Fan Poll ... VOTE TODAY!
ABILENE – The Abilene Christian women's basketball team will put its three-game winning streak on the line Tuesday night when it plays host to Incarnate Word at 5:30 p.m. The Cardinals and Wildcats begin the week tied for third place in the Lone Star Conference with identical 5-2 records and are one game behind first-place Tarleton State (6-1).
The ACU and UIW game will be broadcast live locally on KSLI 1280-AM and on the World Wide Web via the ACU Sports page at
SkyboxLive.com.
The game also doubles as Academic Honors Night, during which 150 ACU student-athletes will be recognized during halftime of the ACU/UIW men's game for posting a 3.0 GPA or higher for the fall 2012 semester. University President Dr. Phil Schubert is expected to be on hand to congratulate the student-athletes along with representatives from the Abilene Teachers Federal Credit Union, which sponsors ACU's student-athlete of the month award.
Since falling at home to Midwestern State at the start of 2013, the Wildcats (10-3) have simply dominated their opposition in winning by an average of 53.0 points per game with a +18.7 rebounding margin. ACU first whipped Cameron at Moody Coliseum, 90-43, and then scorched Texas Woman's, 75-50, on the road before posting the biggest win in program history Saturday night – a 108-21 decision vs. Southwestern Adventist.
ACU's win over the Lady Knights featured a number of single-game individual and team records, including most 3-pointers made (17) and attempted (45), fewest points allowed (21) to a four-year school and largest margin of victory (87).
ACU's recent offensive prowess boosted its season scoring average to 77.5, which is the best in the conference by 2.8 points over Tarleton State and is 11th among all NCAA D-II teams. The Wildcat offense also ranks 14th nationally in scoring margin (+16.6) and fifth in 3-point field goals per game (9.0), but no single individual is averaging more than 12.5 ppg.
Junior forward
Renata Marquez, coming off a career best 25-point performance vs. the Lady Knights leads the Wildcats with 12.2 points per contest. Junior guard Mack Lankford is right behind her with 12.1 ppg followed by sophomore
Sadie Dickinson (11.8) and senior
Kelsey Smith (11.5).
Defensively, ACU is No. 1 in 3-point field goal defense (.213) and 15th in total field-goal percentage defense (.340).
Incarnate Word (9-4) is equally strong defensively and has the LSC's best scoring defense at 58.6 points allowed per game. Opposing teams are shooting .408 against the Cardinals on the floor, and on seven occasions this season they've held the opposition below 60 points. Cameron only mustered 35 points vs. UIW in early December and Eastern New Mexico managed just 39 points vs. UIW Saturday night.
The strength of the Cardinal defense is in its ability to force opponents into turnovers as evident by its league best 11.5 steals per game and +6.0 turnover margin, which is 16th best nationally. UIW's Ashlyn Green ranks 15th in the nation with 3.45 steals per game.
The Cardinals also are very good at defending the 3-pointer with a .259 field goal defense.
Kingsville (3-10) has lost nine straight and begins the week in last place at 1-6 with its lone win coming at the start of conference play vs. Cameron, 61-55. Kaitlyn Lowen leads the Javelinas in scoring and rebounding at 10.0 and 6.7 per game, respectively.
