ABILENE - Abilene Christian women's basketball watched a seven-point lead disappear quickly late in the second half as Sam Houston State finished the game on an improbable 12-0 run sparked by Shernise Robertson and left Moody Coliseum Thursday night with a 63-58 Southland Conference victory.
The win raised the Bearkats season and conference records to 4-13 and 3-14, while the Wildcats fell to .500 at 8-8 and 1-5 vs. the league.
Both teams struggled at times from the floor tonight, but it seemed the Wildcats solved the Bearkats defense with about 7:00 remaining as they hit 8 of 9 buckets starting with a
Whitney West layup at 7:26 that cut Sam Houston's lead to 42-40. That basket ended a 3:31 scoring drought for the Wildcats and came right after the defense produced back-to-back blocks.
West then buried a 3-pointer for what would be the eighth lead change of the game and fifth of the half; however, the sharpshooting Robertson countered West's basket coming out of ACU's timeout with a long-range bomb of her own to put the Bearkats ahead 45-43.
That would be Sam Houston's last lead for sometime as the Wildcats responded with consecutive layups from
Sydney Shelstead and West that marked the start of a 6-for-6 field goal streak. Shelstead's basket - which were her first points of the game - tied the score at 45-45, while West's put the home team ahead at 47-45.
West nailed another trey after the Bearkats turned the ball over to make it a 50-45 score, but a follow-up 3-pointer by Morghen Day with 4:39 to go kept it a one-possession game.
Shelstead and Sam Houston's Saundra Guillory then exchanged layups inside four minutes, but with 3:27 to go
Lizzy Dimba converted a 3-point play after being fouled by Day that made it 55-50 in favor of the Wildcats.
Sam Houston would get one back on a free throw by Taylor Dorsey before allowing a
Suzzy Dimba layup that was assisted by her sister, Lizzy.
That basket gave ACU a 57-51 lead with close to 2:00 minutes left. The Wildcats had a chance to extende it further, but Shelstead unfortunately missed the second of her two free throws and West missed both of hers at the 1:25 mark.
In between and after ACU's trips to the foul line, Robertson hit back-to-back treys to pull her team within one point at 58-57. Then the Wildcats were called for a 10-second violation and the Bearkats capitalized with a basket from Dorsey, who finished with 10 points.
ACU had two more chances to tie the score in the closing seconds, but missed a 3-pointer with :25 seconds remaining and was called for traveling with six ticks left.
Robertson put the game on ice by making her final four free throws and finished with a game-high 28 points.
West scored 23 points on 9-15 shooting to finish one point shy of her career single-game high, while
Suzzy Dimba came off the bench to post a 10-point/10-rebound double-double.
Overall, the Wildcats shot 33 percent from the floor and 31 percent from 3-point range. The team also combined for seven missed free throws on 15 attempts.
Sam Houston shot 50 percent in the first half and took a 29-27 lead into the break despite starting the game behind by scores of 7-0 and 12-2 as the Wildcats connected on four of their first six attempts with West and
Alexis Mason each hitting a 3-pointers by the first media timeout. ACU then received three-consecutive treys from
Suzzy Dimba, West and
Ellyn Avery in less than two minutes starting at the 10:27 mark that pushed its lead out to 22-19.
After Avery's bucket the Wildcats went cold for some time and finished the first half in a 2-for-16 slide.
The Bearkats tied the score for the first time at 13-13 and 11:40 remaining on a free throw by Dorsey, and grabbed their first lead less than a minute later on a trey from Day. The two sides then exchanged the lead four times over the closing 10 minutes, with the last lead change coming on a buzzer-beater 3-pointer by Robertson.
ACU shot 30 percent in the first half led by 10 points from West and seven rebounds from
Suzzy Dimba.
Led by Robertson's impressive night from 3-point range, the Bearkats shot 50 percent from beyond the arc and 46 percent from the floor.
The Wildcats return to action with the third game of their homestand Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. their old rivals from Incarnate Word
