SAN ANTONIO - A difficult first half of shooting combined with an 8-0 UTSA run to start the second half contributed to a 70-57 defeat for the Abilene Christian women's basketball team Wednesday night at the Convocation Center.
The loss dropped ACU to 2-1, while the Roadrunners evened their early season record to 1-1 and improved them to 2-0 all-time vs. the Wildcats. UTSA defeated the Wildcats last season at home 63-58 in January.
The Roadrunners led by 18-points at halftime and immediately capitalized on a pair of Wildcat fouls in the opening minute of the second half as Kamra King and Niaga Mitchell-Cole knocked down all four of their combined free throw attempts. Mitchell-Cole then sank a layup to push the home team's lead out to 24 points and King capped the 8-0 run with one of her three field goals.
King finished the game with 14 points, but had eight of her points from the free-throw line as the Wildcat defense held her to 30 percent shooting (3-10).
But following King's basket, the Wildcats steadily began to chip away at their deficit by getting three consecutive layups from
Alexis Mason,
Lizzy Dimba and
Whitney West - the last of which brought ACU to within 20 points at 47-27.
Unfortunately, the Roadrunners countered with a 3-pointer by Ashley Spaletta (12 points) that would be their last field goal for close to 10 minutes.
The Wildcats made up a little ground during this fine defensive stretch and snuck to within 13 points on two free throws by
Alexis Mason, only to watch Carlie Heineman deliver her first of two timely three-pointers at the 6:09 mark. The second of her treys came off an offensive rebound with 2:43 remaining just after the Wildcats climbed to within 12 points on a Mason layup.
Mason finished the game with 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting, but made 5-of-6 free throws.
Lizzy Dimba, meanwhile, went 7-of-10 from the charity stripe in finishing with a game high 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds to tie
Sydney Shelstead for the team lead.
ACU struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half despite opening the game on a 5-0 run with a 3-pointer by Shelstead followed by a pair of free throws by
Suzzy Dimba. From there, however, the Wildcats went 5-of-27 from the field and missed five of eight free throws to close the half.
UTSA grabbed its first lead of the game at the 15:51 mark on a layup by King, but the Wildcats quickly went back ahead by two on a 3-pointer by
Alyssa Echols. That would be ACU's final lead (8-6)of the half - and game - as the Roadrunners took off on a 13-1 over a four-minute stretch.
The Wildcats were further hampered in the first half by a relentless UTSA defense that converted 11 ACU turnovers into 14 points and outrebounded them by seven, 24-17. The Roadrunners also used their speed and height to pour in 20 points from the paint in addition to 11 second-chance points.
Ashley Spaletta led all first-half scorers with nine points on 3-of-7 3-point shooting.
ACU shot 41.7 percent in the second half and outscored the Roadrunners, 36-31, after finishing the first half with 21 points on 22.2 percent shooting.
The Wildcats return to home action Monday, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. vs. Eastern Washington of the Big Sky Conference. All fans are encouraged to donate a new Teddy Bear as part of ACU SAAC's Teddys For Tots drive, supporting the children of Hendrick's Children's Hospital.
