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ABILENE, Texas - Abilene Christian's women's and men's basketball teams are home this weekend at Moody Coliseum for Thursday and Saturday doubleheaders against their new Southland Conference rivals from Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Neither Wildcat team has played the Islanders prior to this weekend. The ACU men are 2-0 all-time vs. Houston Baptist, while the women last played the Huskies in an exhibition prior to the start of the 2011-12 season.
Thursday night's twin bill begins at 5:30 p.m., while Saturday's double dip starts at 1 p.m. All four games will be broadcast locally on
98.1 FM - The Ticket and via the
ACU Sports Portal provided by Stretch Internet's Game Central.
Both Wildcat teams suffered a pair of tough road losses last weekend at Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State. The Ladyjacks led ACU from start to finish in defeating the Wildcats, 80-59, which was ACU's first game played without the services of sophomore
Whitney West, whose streak of 48 consecutive games played was derailed by the flu.
West was back on the court two days later, scoring 12 points and tying a career high with five assists in a 76-72 defeat to the Lady Demons of Northwestern State. ACU led 38-31 at the half, but allowed an opponent season-high 45 second half points as starters
Renata Marquez and freshman
Suzzy Dimba missed significant minutes due to foul trouble.
The back-to-back losses dropped the women's basketball team's record to 12-10 and 3-4 within the Southland Conference. Meanwhile, Houston Baptist (9-12, 5-5 SLC) comes to town winners of three of its last four games, which includes last weekend's road sweep of Lamar (76-66) and Sam Houston State (63-62).
Leading the Huskies into Abilene is defending Southland Conference Player of the Week Shanice Steenholdt, who registered her 11th double-double of the season with 17 points and 12 rebounds Saturday vs. SHSU. She also matched her career high of five blocks, the last of which resulted in a Bearkat shot-clock violation with 35 seconds remaining.
Steenholdt is second in the SLC this season with 18.0 points per game.
The Islanders (10-11, 3-7 SLC) - who will first play at Incarnate Word Thursday before coming to Abilene - are in a bit of a tailspin as they being the week having lost 6 of their last eight, including both of last weekend's games at SHSU (76-79) and Lamar (72-87).
Corpus Christi, which has the third best scoring defense in the conference this season (64.6 ppg), is led on the floor by Jasmine Shaw (15.2 ppg/5.1 rpg) and Brittany Mbanalu (10.6 ppg/3.0 ppg). The team also ranks first in offensive rebounds (15.5) and has the fourth-highest free-throw percentage of .721.
This season's opposition is averaging 24.9 trips (369-548, .673) to the free-throw line per game, while the Wildcats are averaging 17.5 appearances (250-384, 651).
Despite last weekend's losses, the ACU women continue the Southland Conference in five statistical categories, including scoring offense (73.8 ppg), scoring margin (+7.7), assists (15.5), 3-pointers made (9.4) and 3-point field goal defense (.270).
Individually, Marquez is ranked among the league's top-20 leaders in scoring (13.3), rebounding, (6.2), assists (3.4) and steals (2.1). She also is seventh with 3.1 offensive rebounds per game.
Suzzy Dimba has the fourth most double-doubles with seven, ranks sixth in rebounding (8.5), fourth in defensive rebounds (6.2) and fifth in blocks (1.2), and West is averaging the fourth most 3-pointers per game (2.3).
The ACU (7-15, 1-7 SLC) and Houston Baptist (4-18, 1-9 SLC) men's basketball game features two teams hungry for a victory, as each side enters Thursday's game with respective losing streaks of four and six games. The Wildcats were swept last weekend by two of league's very best teams in Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State by scores of 64-48 and 84-66, while the Huskies followed a 59-57 loss at Lamar with a 81-63 defeat at Sam Houston State.
Corpus Christi, however, is right in the thick of the Southland Conference standings with a fourth-place record of 7-3. The Islanders, who are 10-13 overall, lost eight straight non-conference games before winning six of their first seven Southland contests.
Corpus Christi went 1-1 last weekend, falling by four points at Sam Houston and then crushing Lamar, 58-35. The Islanders' effort vs. the Cardinals lowered their points allowed per game average to 69.0, which ranks second in the Southland to SFA. They also rank second in rebounding defense (32.0), field goal percentage (.440) and 3-point defense (.329).
Islanders to watch include John Jordan, Brandon Pye and Zane Knowles. Jordan is No. 9 in the league in scoring (15.3) and second in assists (4.8), while Knowles is among the SLC's top rebounders (7.7) and shooters (72-127, .567). Pye is tops in the conference with a .500 3-point field goal percentage (24-48).
ACU sophomore guard
Parker Wentz continues to lead the Wildcats during the absence of some of the team's leading scorers. Following Saturday's game at Northwestern State, Wentz has hit 102 3-point field goals in 48 games as a Wildcat and is 10th all-time in 3-point field goals made in ACU history. He also is just the ninth player in ACU history to hit 100 career 3-point field goals.
Wentz' 250 career attempts are good for 12th-best all-time, and his .408 career percentage is sixth-best in school history. He is hitting 3-pointers at a .425 percentage this season, which is eighth on the single-season best list.
Within the Southland Conference, Wentz ranks first in the league with 2.5 3-point field goals made, fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.425), seventh in minutes played (31.9) and 14th in steals (1.4 per game).
