ABILENE – After back-to-back heartbreaking Southland Conference losses, the ACU Wildcats needed a bounce-back win in the worst way.
And that's exactly what they got Saturday afternoon as they blew out Incarnate Word, 78-54, in a women's conference contest at Moody Coliseum.
The dominating victory comes on the heels of home losses to Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston that saw the Wildcats lose leads inside the final two minutes of each game. But Saturday the Wildcats were in complete from start to finish as they vanquished their old Lone Star Conference foe with ease.
Sophomore guard
Alexis Mason broke out of a prolonged shooting slump to hit 8 of 15 shots and score a team-high 17 points, her first double-figure scoring game since she had 11 in ACU's win over Air Force on Dec. 20 at Moody Coliseum.
Suzzy Dimba also recorded her fifth double-double of the season (and 16th of her career) with 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
Whitney West added 11 points and
Sydney Shelstead had six points and 11 rebounds off the bench as ACU improved to 9-8 overall and 2-5 in the conference. The loss dropped Incarnate Word to 5-12 and 2-4.
"After those two heartbreaking losses, we talked a lot in practice the last few couple of days about playing without pressure and knocking down open shots," ACU head coach
Julie Goodenough said. "I'm really proud of the way we executed and the way we hit our layups and how we were shot-ready from the 3-point line."
ACU outscored Incarnate Word 30-16 in the paint and hit 10 of 28 shots from 3-point range, led by West's 3 of 9 from beyond the arc. Mason – who has struggled to find the range from 3-point land this season – did most of her work inside as she continually drove into the paint to hit layups and off-balance jumpers.
"Alexis has been told to never turn down open shots," Goodenough said. "She's had a tough time from the 3-point line this season (27.8 percent), but she's really tough to guard when she drives inside. She was really intentional (Saturday) about driving inside and either making easy shots or getting to the free throw line."
After ACU took the lead early in the game and took a 37-21 advantage into halftime, about the only suspense the rest of the day came five minutes into the second half when UIW cut ACU's lead to 13 points (43-30) on a bucket by Melina Merritt with 16:26 to play.
But West answered with a 3-pointer at the 15:24 mark and after a layup by UIW's Jazmine Holman, ACU put the game away with a 9-0 run to go up by 23 points. Ellen Avery hit a 3-pointer with 14:08 to play to make it 49-32 before
Paris Webb converted a three-point play for a 20-point lead (52-32) with 13:29 to play. Avery capped the run with 13:13 to play with her second 3-pointer of the cay to make it 55-32 and ACU would never lead by less than 19 the rest of the way.
