ESPN3 | Live Audio (ACU) | Live Stats
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's women's basketball team interrupts a three-game homestand Thursday with the first of two games this season vs. Incarnate Word, which will be streamed on
ESPN3 starting at 6 p.m.
The game also will be broadcast live in Abilene on 98.1 FM-The Ticket and via the ACU Sports Portal provided by Stretch Internet's
Game Central.
The Wildcats (13-11, 4-5 Southland) won their last ESPN3 contest at home on Jan. 25 vs. Sam Houston State, 73-67, and will look to defeat their old rivals from the Lone Star Conference for the fifth time in seven meetings dating back to the start of the 2010-11 campaign.
The Wildcats beat the Cardinals (8-14, 2-8 Southland) last year at home, 76-65, for the 300th win of head coach
Julie Goodenough's career, but dropped their rematch in San Antonio, 68-53, with a chance to win the conference's regular season title hanging in the balance. ACU and Midwestern State went on to share the honor of co-champions as a result of the Wildcats' defeat, but the Mustangs entered the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed.
The Wildcats recorded their last win at the McDermott Center nearly two years ago on Feb. 15, 2012 - a game in which senior
Renata Marquez scored 15 points, pulled down five rebounds and came away with a game-high four steals. Last season in San Antonio, the Conroe, Texas, native posted a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Marquez has continued to perform solidly for the Wildcats well into her senior year, and with just six games left on the schedule she needs 72 more points to become the 25th member of ACU's single-season 400-Point Club and 40 to tie her personal single-sesaon record of 368 points (13.1 ppg) from 2012-13.
In addition to leading the Wildcats in scoring with 13.7 points per game this year, Marquez also is tops on the team (eighth in the Southland) with 3.6 assists per game. She recently dished out seven assists Saturday in the loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, giving her 13 career games with five or more assists.
And with four steals against the Islanders, Marquez moved into second place in the league with 2.3 per game.
Freshman
Suzzy Dimba, who recorded her eighth double-double of the year vs. A&M-Corpus Christi, also is ranked in several conference categories, including rebounding (8.4), defensive rebounds (6.3) and blocks (1.2), while sophomore
Whitney West is averaging the fourth most 3-pointers (2.3). West scored 11 points vs. the Islanders and needs five more points to reach 500 for her career.
Dimba's season double-double total is the most by any Wildcat since
Kelsey Smith had seven during the 2010-11 season.
The Cardinals come into this week's contest in need of a victory as they've lost their last six by an average of 7.5 points per game, which includes a 60-56 defeat to the Islanders and 70-65 loss to Houston Baptist - a team ACU beat by 12 points (82-70).
UIW is led in scoring by Rose Whitehead with 13.6 points per game, and in rebounding by the Mora twins - Ifunanya and Kosisio - who are pulling down 7.0 and 6.3 boards per game, respectively.
As a team, the Cardinals are second to last in the conference in scoring offense with 61.6 points per game, but they're No. 1 in free throw percentage as they've knocked down 412 of 560 attempts (.736).
The Wildcats remain the Southland Conference leaders in scoring offense (74.0 ppg), assists (15.4), steals (10.3), 3-pointers made (9.4) and 3-point field goal defense (.283).
Nationally, ACU's 9.4 three-point field goals per game ranks fourth behind Sacramento State (13.0), Florida Gulf Coast (9.9) and Oregon (9.5), and its steals per game total is among the top-30 teams alongside Nicholls State, Florida and George Washington.
ACU will face the Cardinals a second time in their season finale on Saturday, March 8 at 1 p.m. at Abilene's Moody Coliseum.
