MANHATTAN, Kan. – The nation's top scoring defense showed its teeth Monday night as Kansas State shut down the high-scoring ACU Wildcats in a 68-53 victory in women's non-conference basketball action at Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats of K-State improved to 9-1 with the victory, while ACU falls to 7-3 with the loss. ACU will be back in action on New Year's Eve when it hosts longtime rival Angelo State in a 1 p.m. matinee at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats will then start Southland Conference play against Central Arkansas at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 3, at Moody Coliseum.
Monday night in America's Heartland, ACU ran into a defensive buzz saw that forced 29 turnovers, came up with 24 steals, held ACU to just 6 of 23 shooting from beyond the arc (26.1 percent) and held ACU to 27 points below its season scoring average. Kansas State entered the game as the top-ranked scoring defense in NCAA Division I basketball, holding opponents to just 45.6 points per game through the early part of the season. ACU entered the game averaging 80.1 ppg, which would rank 19th in the country if ACU's stats counted in the NCAA rankings.
ACU committed a season-high 29 turnovers just two days after committing a season-low nine turnovers in a big home win over Air Force.
"We were just way too careless with the ball," ACU head coach
Julie Goodenough said. "Their size advantage really hurt us, and that forced us into a lot of careless turnovers."
ACU managed to keep the game within striking distance before K-State pushed its advantage to 15 points (42-27) at halftime. Then K-State took firm control of the game by outscoring ACU 8-0 to start the second half, keeping ACU off the scoreboard for the first 7:45 of the second half. ACU was 0 for 4 from the field and committed 10 turnovers in the first 7:45 of the half.
K-State eventually pushed its lead to 25 points (59-34) with 7:25 to play after a layup by Antoinette Taylor, but ACU would not quit.
Sydney Shelstead — who finished with 14 points and five rebounds — had a layup followed by a 3-pointer from
Whitney West to make it 59-39. Shelstead later added a free throw and West another 3-pointer to make it 61-43 with 5:04 to play.
Lizzy Dimba hit a jumper with 3:33 to play to make it 61-45, then
Alexis Mason made her only 3-pointer of the night with 2:54 to play to pull ACU to within 63-48. Lizy Dimba hit another jumper with 2:17 to play to cut the K-State lead to 63-50. But that was as close as ACU would get the rest of the way as K-State was able to hold off the Wildcats for the win in the first game ever between the two teams.
"I was proud of the way we competed, especially in the second half," Goodenough said. "I thought we hung tough defensively in the second half. We were really intentional about blocking out in the second half. It took a complete team effort to keep them off the boards (ACU won the rebounding battle, 30-28)."
West led the Wildcats with 19 points, while
Suzzy Dimba had eight points, nine rebounds and four assists for ACU. Breanna Lewis was the only K-State player to finish in double figures, leading her team with 16 points.
Abilene Christian Head Coach Quotes
Head Coach Julie Goodenough
On how they matched up with K-State…
"After seeing our team match up with their team, there is no way to emulate their size in our practices. We knew that they were going to be in a 2-3 zone, they were going to be really quick and long in that. There is not really a way for us to really give our players a good visual of what that was going to be like. It took us that whole first half to figure out where the gaps were and where the ball needed to go, but I was really proud of our players for making adjustments, and getting the ball where it needed to be in the second half."
On their effort…
"I think defensively we did a good job. What hurt us in the first half were the turnovers, and we could not get back and defend the transition. I was proud of our half-court defense, especially against the big post players that they had inside. We had to double and triple team them. I was pleased with our overall effort. I think it took us about 20 minutes to figure out that this team is really long, we are going to have to ball fake, and it is going to take a little more effort to get the ball around the defense. I was really proud of our adjustment in the second half, getting the ball to open players, and just getting the shots off, which we did not get enough shots off in the first half."
