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ABILENE - Abilene Christian's women's basketball team returns to Moody Coliseum for the first time in two weeks Tuesday night for its annual Christmas Slam game against their old Lone Star Conference Rivals from Texas A&M-Commerce.
The Lions are the second LSC team to visit Abilene this season, joining an Angelo State squad that was squashed by the Wildcats, 87-41, on Nov. 14.
The game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and will be broadcast by
Grant Boone on 98.1 FM - The Ticket and via the ACU Sports portal hosted by Stretch Internet.
Tickets start at $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and children 18 and under, but fans can get in at discounted rate if they bring a new unwrapped toy for Abilene's
Love and Care Ministries. Adults donating a toy will gain admission for $5 dollars, while children and seniors can get into the doubleheader for free.
The Wildcats twice defeated the Lions during the regular season by scores of 81-60 and 75-61 to push their series winning streak out to six games, but were later stunned by Commerce during the quarterfinal round of the Lone Star Conference Championship, 80-79. That win for the Lions was only their 11th against ACU in 63 meetings (.175).
Fast-forward to this season and the Lions are a surprising 0-5 start despite returning their two leading scorers, seniors Breanna Harris and Danielle Dixon. Harris is coming off a season that saw her average a double-double of 15.6 points and 10.5 rebounds and earn second team All-LSC honors, while Dixon averaged 9.8 points a season ago along with 4.3 rebounds.
Commerce's most-recent defeat came at Sam Houston State of the Southland Conference, 85-64, and prior to that the Lions fell convincingly to St. Edward's and Central Oklahoma before losing by a basket in games vs. Southeastern Oklahoma (85-83) and Texas A&M-International (81-79).
As for the Wildcats, they just recorded their first victory over a NCAA D-I opponent this season - and in 20 years - Wednesday night at Texas-Arlington, 79-72. Senior forward
Renata Marquez made a career high 10 field goals to lead the Wildcats with 26 points and 12 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Sophomore
Whitney West, meanwhile, blocked a career high three shots and finished with 19 points - one shy of her single-game career high. West made 7-of-12 field goals in tying a career best for the fourth time.
Those performances kept Marquez and West ranked among the Southland's top-30 scoring leaders at 14.4 and 14.1 points per game respectively. Marquez also is tops in the league with 4.1 offensive rebounds and fifth with 2.3 3-point field goals made per game.
The 5-2 Wildcats rank first in the Southland through several team statistical categories, including scoring offense (81.1) and scoring margin (+20.7), plus assists (17.1), steals (12.9), turnover margin (+5.7), 3-point field goals made (10.0) and 3-point defense (.214).
Now in its third year, the ACU Christmas Slam has entertained close to 2,000 fans each of the past two seasons and received three prestigious medals from The National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) for various promotional efforts.
Treats at this year's Slam include free cookies and candy, pictures with Santa Claus, plus free T-shirts to the first 500 fans, and free pizza to the first 200 students. Fans also can enter their names for a chance to win free Whataburger for a year and tickets to the Cowboys and Eagles game on Dec. 29.
ACU Provost Dr. Robert Rhodes will also be in attendance to offer a blessing at halftime of the women's game.
ACU is 1-1 all-time in Christmas Slam games. The Wildcats lost to Cameron, 59-55, at the inaugural Slam in 2011 and beat Commerce last season, 81-60.
Contact John Houser, ACU's Assistant Athletics Director for Operations, at (325) 674-2924 for more information on Christmas Slam ticket discounts, prize giveaways and complete schedule of events.
