ABILENE - Abilene Christians's women's basketball team will play some of its biggest games of the season this week as it follows a Tuesday home game vs. Texas Wesleyan with anticipated trips to Big XII schools TCU and Texas Tech.
ACU's game vs. the Rams at Moody Coliseum will be an audio-only broadcast streamed via
Stretch Internet, while its four road contests can be heard online or locally on
98.1 FM-The Ticket.
Fans coming to Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. doubleheader - which also includes the men's team taking on Bacone College - will be treated to free candy canes and have an opportunity to win DVDs of 'A Christmas Carol', 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' and 'Frosty the Snow Man.'
ACU Athletics also will be offering one fan a chance to shoot for tickets to the Dec. 29 Cowboys vs. Eagles game at AT&T Stadium and another to win free golf at Tin Cup Country Club. Fans can register to win by tweeting to @acusports or entering at the marketing table located on the north concourse of Moody Coliseum.
Texas Wesleyan begins its week at 4-5 and will first play Monday night at Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas before visiting the Key City. The Rams are 5-10 all-time against the Wildcats, but have not faced them since early in 2000-01, when the two teams split a home-and-home series. ACU lost the first game that season, 74-70, before winning the rematch, 75-65. The series between the Wildcats and Rams - who are a NAIA/Sooner Athletic Conference team based in Fort Worth - dates all the way back to 1973.
After playing their final home date of 2013, the Wildcats (6-3) return to the road Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game at TCU and will then visit Lubbock over the weekend for the three-day, four-team World Vision Invitational. There, ACU will face Florida Atlantic (Friday at 8 p.m.) and Jacksonville (Saturday at noon) for the first time in school history before renewing its rivalry with host Texas Tech (Sunday at 2 p.m.).
The Wildcats and Red Raiders met an astonishing 23 times between 1971 and 1983, and occasionally faced off between three and four times during some of those seasons. Tech won its last three games vs. ACU to claim a all-time series lead of 17-6 with the Wildcats' last win against them taking place early in the 1978-79 campaign.
ACU and TCU also were frequent opponents for the better part of several years as they met 10 times from 1976 to 1983. The Wildcats won their first seven meetings vs. the Horned Frogs and lead the all-time series, 8-2. ACU's most recent result vs. TCU was a 69-65 victory during its 21-win/Lone Star Conference Championship season of 1982-83.
The Wildcats are undefeated at home this season at 5-0, but are off to a 1-3 start on the road, including Saturday's loss at Tulsa. ACU fell to the defending Conference USA Champions by a score of 81-61, but received a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds from freshman
Suzzy Dimba and 14 points off the bench from her twin sister, Lizzy. Senior
Renata Marquez also chipped in 14 points and currently leads the Wildcats with a 13.7 points per game scoring average.
Dimba's double-double was her fourth of the season and the team's ninth, matching last year's total.
Despite the loss, ACU still leads the Southland Conference in 10 statistical categories, including scoring offense (80.1 ppg), scoring margin (+17.0), field goal percentage (.436) and defense (.371), assists (17.3), steals (12.2) and 3-point field goals made (9.4).
Individually, Marquez is ranked among the league's top-15 leaders in scoring, and top-10 in rebounding (8.0), assists (3.9) and steals (2.8).
Suzzy Dimba, meanwhile, is eighth in rebounding (8.0), third in blocks (1.2) and second with a .419 field-goal percentage.
