ABILENE –
Mackenzie Lankford's 24.5 points per game from last week's road victories earned her a second-straight Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week citation and helped vault the Wildcats into first place with two weeks to go.
ACU's defense of its position begins Tuesday night at 7 p.m. when the Wildcats play host to Texas Woman's at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats won the first meeting in Denton, Texas earlier this season, 75-50, to improve to 40-13 all-time vs. the Pioneers.
The game will be broadcast live in Abilene on AM-1280 KSLI and streamed over the Internet via the ACU Sports page at SkyboxLive.com.
Lankford, a junior guard from Weatherford, Texas, began her week with 33 points on 10 of 16 shooting from the field (5 of 9 from 3-point range) during last Wednesday's 85-72 win at Midwestern State. She scored 20 points in the first half, and then after re-entering late in the second half, she buried back-to-back 3-pointers to push ACU's lead from seven to 13 points. The Wildcats would not be threatened the rest of the way.
In Saturday's 72-53 win over Cameron, Lankford scored 16 points and had five assists as the Wildcats moved into sole possession of first place in the league standings.
Lankford now has 1,255 career points, which leaves her just 117 behind Pat Bidwell (1,371 points from 1985-89) for 15th place on ACU's all-time scoring list. In 70 career games as a Wildcat, Lankford is averaging 17.9 points per game and her 33-point effort at MSU marked the ninth time she has topped the 30-point mark. Her career high of 38 points was recorded a year ago this week (Feb. 19) at Texas A&M-Kingsville.
With an overall record of 19-4 and conference mark of 14-3, the Wildcats begin their week one-half game ahead of second-place Tarleton State (13-3) and a game ahead of third-place MSU (13-4). Incarnate Word also is mathematically alive for the championship crown with a fourth-place mark of 11-5.
The Wildcats' 19 regular-season wins are the sixth-most in program history and most in a single-season since 2004-05 when they finished 20-10 and qualified for the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament. And despite not showing up in any WBCA Top-25 poll this season, ACU should see its name in the first edition of NCAA Regional rankings when they're released this coming Wednesday. The second and third regional rankings will be released Feb. 27 and March 6, which is the first day of the LSC Championships in Allen, Texas.
The Pioneers (6-16), meanwhile, are in eighth place and fighting to hang in the postseason chase at 4-12. They are currently a game behind Eastern New Mexico (5-11) for seventh, but one ahead of three-win Kingsville and Cameron.
ACU remains the No. 1 scoring offense in the LSC led by its long-range shooters who have tossed up the fourth most 3-point field goals per game in the nation at 8.9. Lankford (2.1) and her teammates
Kynzie Newman (1.6),
Whitney West (1.5) and Sadie Dickson (1.4) all rank third through sixth in this category as individuals, while Marquez ranks 10th (1.4).
West, however, has the best 3-point field goal percentage among the Wildcats at .443 (35-79).
The Wildcats also moved up to No. 1 in free-throw percentage this past week after going 42-of-48 from the line at MSU and Cameron, and took over the top spot in field-goal defense at .355. The Mustangs and Aggies combined to shoot .342 from the floor as the Wildcats outscored them by an average of 78.5 to 62.5.
ACU's 3-point field goal defense went up slightly to .252 (110-437), but still ranks first in the conference and fifth in Division II.
Individually, Lankford ranks sixth in the LSC in scoring (14.3) followed by Marquez in eighth at 12.7 ppg.
Kelsey Smith is the Wildcats top rebounder with 6.9 boards per game and has blocked the second most shots (1.7) behind Angelo State's Lauren Holt (1.9).
