Live Stats |
Live Broadcast
ABILENE -
Julie Goodenough and her Abilene Christian women's basketball team return to the court Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. game at Texas-Arlington, the place where the 20-year head coach got her start in the profession as a student assistant.
The game will be broadcast by
Grant Boone here in Abilene on
98.1 FM - The Ticket, which also can be accessed via the iHeartRadio app and the
Game Central links on ACUSports.com.
UTAMavs.com will provide live stats and a video stream.
Following two years of competition at Western Texas College where she was a conference assist leader, Goodenough (then Julie Roewe) transferred to UT-Arlington to play for head coach J.D. Isler. Under Isler's tutelage for two seasons, Goodenough earned second-team All-Southland Conference honors and finished 13th on UTA's all-time scoring list. She also was named the school's Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Goodenough spent one additional season on the UTA bench learning from Isler before serving as a volunteer assistant at Lubbock Christian for the 1992-93 season. That job directly led to the head coaching position at Hardin-Simmons, where her coaching profile accelerated as she led the Cowgirls to a pair of NAIA National Tournaments and four NCAA D-III appearances through nine winning seasons.
Her efforts on Ambler Avenue soon caught the attention of Oklahoma State, and later Charleston Southern, where she spent six seasons before coming back to the Lone Star State in the spring of 2012. Now, in the midst of her second year at ACU, Goodenough continues to coach winning basketball in the Key City as her Wildcats have so far recorded a 25-9 (.735) overall record since her arrival.
This year's team started hot, winning its first four home games by an average of 41.2 points, but things decidedly got tougher on the road this past weekend in Denton, Texas, where the young Wildcats lost consecutive games to the Mean Green and Grand Canyon University. The game vs. North Texas on Saturday night was ACU's first against a NCAA D-I school in 20 years.
Despite suffering the two defeats, ACU received 12.5 points per game from the freshmen duo of
Suzzy Dimba and
Alexis Mason. Dimba scored 14 points off the bench against North Texas before adding 11 vs. the Antelopes in what was the first start of her collegiate career.
Mason, who ranks among the conference assist leaders with 4.2 per game, tied her career high in points with 15 vs. GCU as she hit six-of-eight field goals, including a pair of 3-pointers. The previous night, Mason scored 10 points in 20 minutes vs. the Mean Green.
Also of note from last weekend's games was sophomore
Whitney West eclipsing 300 career points. Last season's Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year leads the team this fall with 13.3 points per game and is second with 12 steals.
West's scoring average also ranks her among the SLC's top-30 players along with teammates
Renata Marquez (12.5),
Suzzy Dimba (12.3) and
Sydney Shelstead (11.2). Shelstead's .561 (23-41) field-percentage is the sixth highest in the conference.
While the Wildcats are seeking a win on the road, the Mavericks are desperate for a win of any kind as they enter the week at 0-6 under first-year head coach Krista Gerlich. Before coming to UTA, Gerlich coached for seven years at West Texas A&M and owned an all-time series record of 8-7 vs. ACU. Last year, however, the Wildcats defeated her team twice by scores of 81-76 and 69-60.
The Mavericks' early-season schedule has been a challenging one as they've suffered defeats to both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State as well as against Houston Baptist and Incarnate Word of the Southland Conference. Their most recent loss was in overtime against VCU, 74-63.
UTA is led in scoring (13.7) and rebounding (7.7) by Briana Walker, who is one of eight returning letterwinners. Other Mavericks to watch include senior Desherra Nwanguma, who has scored in double figures over her last two outings, and freshman Allea Harris, who scored a career-high 19 points with seven rebounds vs. VCU.
For the schools, Wednesday's game marks their first meeting since the 1986-87 season when ACU defeated the Mavericks, 91-74 at Moody Coliseum. ACU has won four of the last six meetings, but UTA leads the all-time series, 8-5. The schools frequently played one another from the early 1970s through the mid 1980s with two games taking place in 1977-78, 1980-81 and 1983-84.
