Hospitality Hill Challenge Website
Live Stats vs. North Texas |
Live Audio |
Live Video
Live Stats vs. Grand Canyon
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's high-scoring women's basketball team will receive its first taste of NCAA D-I hoops in 20 years this Saturday and Sunday when it visits North Texas for games against the Mean Green and the Antelopes of Grand Canyon University.
Saturday's 7:30 p.m. game will be broadcast locally on 98.1 FM - The Ticket by Doug Anderson. The Ticket's signal also can be heard through the iHeartRadio app and via the Game Central links found on ACUSports.com.
ACU (4-0) feasted on lower-division competition over the last several weeks during which the Wildcats outscored its competition by an average of 41.2 points per game (95.5-54.2) and outrebounded by 10.8. But now the competition gets tougher in a hurry as the Wildcats prepare to tackle a North Texas (1-2) team that's been battled tested by No. 13 Texas A&M and Houston, and a GCU side that began its first year as a D-I program with sizable wins over Western State and Western New Mexico.
ACU's meeting with Grand Canyon is a first for both schools, but the Wildcats' history with North Texas goes all the way back to the 1974-75 season when the Mean Green edged the fourth-year Wildcats, 48-43. ACU went on to win the next two games in the series in 1975-76 and 1978-79, but later lost three of four with the most recent meeting taking place in early 1987.
Of the 147 different schools ACU has played over its 44 seasons, 22 are currently recognized as NCAA D-I programs, ranging from Air Force to Texas Tech; however, the Wildcats have not faced any of these schools since the 1993-94 campaign when they scheduled Texas-El Paso, Idaho State and New Mexico State during the non-conference portion of their slate. In a year in which the Wildcats went 21-9 and qualified for NCAA Regionals under second-year head coach Suzanne Fox, ACU lost by nine points to the Miners, edged the Bengals, 75-74, and dropped a six-point decision to the Aggies.
Getting these three D-I schools on a D-II program's schedule was rather exceptional, considering UTEP only played ACU once before in 1979-80, while the other two would never again face the Wildcats during their days as a Lone Star Conference heavyweight.
But in two decades leading up to the 1993-94 season, it was fairly common to see ACU square off against Texas Tech, which it met 23 times between 1972 and 1983, or even see Sam Houston State (11 games), Texas Arlington (13) or TCU (10) come to Moody Coliseum.
And would you believe the Wildcats have a combined record of 4-2 against Texas and Texas A&M?
That's right. ACU defeated the Aggies once at Moody in 1980 and twice in College Station (1984, 1986). The Wildcats also beat the Longhorns, 67-31, in their lone meeting at the 1976 Texas AIWA Tournament. Several months following its loss to the Wildcats, Texas hired the legendary Jody Conradt to be their next head coach.
While the schedules and opponents of season's past are interesting to some, it's all ancient history to this year's young crop of Wildcats, which has been nothing short of dynamic on both ends of the court.
Tuesday night vs. Northwood, ACU eclipsed 100 points for the second time in four games after doing it only once all of last season. Even more remarkable was the fact that the Wildcats had six players - mostly freshmen - to score in double figures, and of those six, half registered a double-double:
Sydney Shelstead (20 points/10 rebounds),
Renata Marquez (16/10) and
Suzzy Dimba (10/11).
The last time ACU had six players reach double figures was during its record setting four-overtime, 147-143, victory against Texas Woman's in January of 2009, but finding the last time three Wildcats recorded a double-double in regulation proved to be difficult since digital stats only go back as far as 1999-00.
But to demonstrate how tough a double-double is to attain, note that ACU had only nine all of last season through 28 games led by
Kelsey Smith with four. And prior to Tuesday's game, one has to go back almost five years to find the last time two Wildcats had a double-double in a regulation game – and that was Jody Meyer (20/13) and Audrey Maxwell-Livey (28/11) in the Jan. 3, 2009 win over Texas A&M Commerce (104-95).
Two nights later vs. the Pioneers, double-doubles were posted by Maxwell-Lively (18/12) and Meyer sisters, Jody (17/13) and Jamie (49/14).
As a result of its fast start, ACU finds itself as one of just three remaining undefeated Southland Conference teams along with 5-0 Incarnate Word and 2-0 Northwestern State. The Wildcats also are first in scoring offense (95.5), scoring margin (+41.2), 3-point field goals made (13.0) and assists (24.3).
Houston Baptist is averaging the second most assists per game at 17.8, while Lamar is the next closest team in terms of 3-pointers made with 9.0 per game.
Individually, freshman
Alexis Mason is tied for first with 6.0 assists per game and is second with a 3.0 assist/turnover ratio. And among the Southland's top-30 scoring leaders are
Whitney West (17.0), Marquez (15.8), Shelstead (12.8) and Dimba (12.5). Dimba also is sixth overall in the conference with a .583 (17-28) field goal percentage.
On defense, ACU is No. 1 in the league in rebounding margin (+10.8), steals (14.8) and turnover margin (+9.0) and third in blocks per game (4.8). The Wildcats have forced 106 turnovers overall - an average of 26.5 per game.
