JULIE GOODENOUGH AND MACKENZIE LANKFORD INTERVIEW WITH GRANT BOONE
ABILENE – First in the Lone Star Conference, second in the region, and on the rise in the
WBCA Coaches' poll, the Abilene Christian women's basketball team enters a highly anticipated final week of the regular season, which features games against Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Kingsville.
The Wildcats (20-4) are currently a half game ahead of Midwestern State and need to defeat both the Cardinals and Javelinas to lock up their first outright Lone Star Conference regular-season championship since 1997-98. The Mustangs, meanwhile, play host to Texas Woman's Wednesday night in their season finale, and hold the tiebreaker over ACU as a result of a season sweep of third-place Tarleton State.
Each of this week's games will tip at 5:30 p.m. and be carried locally on AM-1280 KSLI. There will also be a live audio stream for Wednesday's contest at Incarnate Word and full video stream of Saturday's home game vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville. Live stream information can be found on the ACU Sports page at
SkyboxLive.com.
Additionally Saturday night, the senior class of
Kelsey Smith and
Emily Miller will be honored during pregame introductions, while the ACU Women's
Lone Star Conference-Era Starting 5 Team will be introduced at halftime.
ACU defeated both Incarnate Word and Kingsville earlier this season during its season-best eight-game winning streak. The Wildcats first bested the Cardinals at home, 76-65, before taking to the road to beat the Javelinas, 76-61. ACU enjoyed a strong second half in each game as it outscored the opposition over the final 20 minutes by a combined score of 80-54.
Junior forward
Renata Marquez led ACU in scoring that week with 19.5 points per game, while
Sadie Dickinson finished a point shy of a double-double vs. the Javelinas (9points/11 rebounds). The sophomore guard also dropped 14 points on the Cardinals.
Incarnate Word (16-8, 12-6 LSC) – 7-3 since its last meeting vs. ACU – recently snapped a two-game losing streak following its 64-61 overtime win at Eastern New Mexico. The victory pushed the Cardinals into a tie with West Texas A&M for fourth place and a game behind Tarleton State for third place with two games remaining.
Ashlyn Green's 12.1 points per game and Michelle Hale's 6.1 rebounds lead UIW. Green recorded a double-double vs. the Wildcats and was one of four Cardinals to score in double figures that night along with Lauren McKinney (12), Katie Novak (13) and Joslinn Douglass (15).
The Cardinals' defense is No. 1 in the LSC in steals (10.3) and turnover margin (+4.63) and No. 2 in scoring at 58.8 points allowed per game. UIW also is among the LSC's top three teams in 3-point field goal defense (.291).
Texas A&M-Kingsville (5-19, 3-15 LSC) has lost its last four, and seven of its last nine, since playing host to ACU on Jan. 19. The last-place Javelinas led 40-37 at halftime of that game thanks to six 3-pointers and 40 percent shooting, but cooled down significantly in the second half, where they made only 2-of-15 3-point attempts.
Kaitlyn Lowen leads the Javelinas in rebounding (5.7) and scoring (9.2), followed by Sheana Jones (9.0) and Ashley Viera (8.5).
The Wildcats' most recent game was a 67-50 triumph over Texas Woman's last Tuesday at Moody Coliseum. The win was their 20th of the year, giving the Wildcats their most for a regular season since the 1998-99 squad posted a 21-6 regular season record on its way to a Lone Star Conference championship and a final record of 24-7.
ACU's 2004-05 team also won 20 games and reached the NCAA Division II South Central Region tournament.
The Wildcats begin the week with the No. 2 scoring offense in D-II at 75.5 points per game as they continue to sink an average of 8.8 treys vs. the opposition. And after limiting the Pioneers to 3-of-20 3-point shooting, ACU now ranks fifth in D-II in 3-point defense at 24.7 percent.
Individually,
Mackenzie Lankford and Marquez both rank among the conference's top-10 scoring leaders at 14.5 and 12.7 points per game. Marquez also climbed to fourth recently in the LSC in free-throw percentage (.806) after having a perfect night at the line vs. TWU.
In terms of 3-point shooting, the conference's top-15 list features five Wildcats led by freshman
Whitney West, who has made 43.9 percent (36-of-82) of her shots. Dickinson ranks second on the team (.344) followed by freshman
Kynzie Newman (.333), Marquez (.322) and Lankford (.306), who makes an average of 2.1 3-pointers per game.
Smith, meanwhile, is the Wildcats' leading shooter (.470), rebounder (6.9) and blocker (1.8).
