Box Score
DENTON, Texas - The Mean Green of North Texas took off on several major scoring runs during the second half of Saturday night's game vs. the Abilene Christian women's basketball team and handed the Wildcats their first defeat of the season, 64-50.
Playing against their first NCAA D-I opponent in 20 years, the Wildcats (4-1) were led on the court by freshman
Suzzy Dimba, who recorded a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds, and rookie guard
Alexis Mason, who finished with 10 points. North Texas, meanwhile, even its season record at 2-2 as three players - Briesha Wynn, Laura McCoy and Alexis Hyder - all reached double figures in scoring.
Wynn led all players with 15 points. McCoy had 12 and Hyder chipped in 14 off the bench. North Texas also dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Wildcats by 15, 45-30, and held them to less than 20 percent shooting from the 3-point line (6-31).
ACU didn't help itself either by missing close to half of its free-throw attempts, while the Mean Green hit 15-of-21 freebies (.714) as they continually pulled away from the Wildcats during a 35-point second half.
After Mason buried a 3-pointer two minutes into the second half to make it a one-possession game at 31-29, North Texas pushed its lead out to nine points (40-31) thanks to an 11-2 run that include a three-point play from Hyder and a big 3-pointer from McCoy.
ACU, however, crept back into the contest after newcomer
Jessica Elkins sank a trey that followed four straight foul shots dropped in by senior
Renata Marquez and freshman
Sydney Shelstead. The Elkins' bucket cut the Mean Green's lead to 42-38 with just under 10-minutes remaining.
Soon afterward, the Wildcats started getting in foul trouble and North Texas made them pay with McCoy and Breanna Dawkins each making theirs to again push the home team's lead out to eight points. Wynn then banked in two jumpers on each side of an ACU timeout taken at 8:42, the second of which made it a 50-39 game.
The Wildcats showed some life on offense just once more outside the 6:00 mark when Dimba followed a
Whitney West layup with a 3-pointer that cut North Texas' advantage to six points, 50-44.
But on the Mean Green's next possession, Acheli Tac sank a layup that ignited a 10-1 run that lasted close to four minutes as ACU wouldn't hit another field goal until
Cemetra Jenkins nailed a 3-pointer at the 2:25 mark.
Lizzy Dimba scored ACU's final basket on a layup with 30 seconds remaining.
North Texas finished the night shooting 46 percent from the field (23-50) and hit three of their nine long-range attempts. Their biggest struggle was holding onto the ball in committing 29 turnovers, but many of those were canceled out by the 22 made by the Wildcats.
The Mean Green entered the break ahead 29-26 after shooting 40 percent (10-25) from the floor and making 7-of-11 free throws. By comparison, the Wildcats were sent to the line just five times and missed three of those chances.
The Mean Green also went into the locker room with a +6.0 rebounding margin led by Tac's eight boards. She would finish with 14.
Suzzy Dimba had six rebounds during the first half and led all players after 20 minutes with nine points. Her first basket gave ACU a 15-13 lead at the 11:45 mark, while her last field goal put them up 24-22 with 2:52 remaining. From there, North Texas made a 7-0 run that featured five points from Candice Adams and gave the Mean Green their biggest lead of the half at 29-24.
In the final minute, Mason forced Hannah Christian into one of 17 North Texas turnovers and converted it into an unassisted fast break layup that cut the Wildcats' deficit to three points.
Mason had seven first-half points in 13 minutes of action.
ACU's biggest lead of the first half was six points (12-6) following a 3-pointer by West at the 16:15 mark. But that was one of only two treys made by the Wildcats on 13 attempts. The Wildcats shot just under 40 percent (.393 | 11-28) in the first half.
The Wildcats continue their stay in Denton, Texas Sunday with a 3 p.m. game vs. Grand Canyon University.
