Women's Basketball | 11/12/2015 9:56:00 AM
Game Notes
Live Stats vs. Wayland Baptist | Video | AudioLive Stats at Kansas State | Audio | Video ABILENE – Abilene Christian women's basketball begins its 45th season of competition Saturday at 7 p.m. vs. Wayland Baptist at Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats have won their last five season openers, including last season's 91-64 victory over the Flying Queens, to improve to 27-17 all-time on Opening Night.
The "Voice of the Wildcats"
Grant Boone will broadcast the game on ACUSports.com.
ACU has won its last three meetings vs. WBU but trail the all-time series 12-4. Last season the Wildcats held the Flying Queens to .323 shooting (.091, 3-point range) and scored 38 points off the opposition's 29 turnovers in the 27-point triumph. The 29 turnovers forced by ACU were its most since reaching the same total at North Texas on Nov. 23, 2013.
WBU, however, possessed a strong game on the glass and came down with 52 rebounds, which were the most by an ACU opponent since Texas A&M-Kingsville pulled down 60 on Feb. 19, 2012.
The Flying Queens went on to finish last season with a No. 22 ranking and a 19-12 record, having advanced to the NAIA National Tournament for the second straight season under the leadership of head coach Alesha Robertson-Ellis.
This year WBU is expected to be led by a pair of NAIA All-Americans in seniors Stephanie Afunugo, the reigning Sooner Athletic Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year who was WBU's top scorer a year ago averaging 13.7 points per game, and Laura Castillo, an All-SAC First-Teamer who averaged 13.2 ppg.
The team added four newcomers this season, including 6-4 senior forward Krystal Forthan, who was a McDonald's High School All-American and WBCA All-American before going on to play at LSU and Academy of Art.
The Wildcats return all eight of their starters from the 2014-15 team that went 17-12 overall and 9-9 within the Southland Conference. They will once again be led onto the court by senior Whitney (West) Swinford and a dynamic junior class of Lizzy and
Suzzy Dimba,
Alexis Mason and
Sydney Shelstead.
Suzzy Dimba last week was named to the 2015-16 All-Southland Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Second Team in recognition of her outstanding sophomore campaign in which she finished ranked among the conference leaders in scoring (11.6 ppg), rebounding (8.6 rpg), assists (2.6 apg), blocks (1.7 bpg), steals (2.6), 3-point field goals per game (1.4) and double-doubles (10). Dimba's steals per game average was 32nd in the NCAA, and her rebounding and blocking averages were ranked among the top 100 nationally.
Shelstead received Third Team All-Southland Conference honors at the end of the last season, and was equally impressive in the classroom as her 3.95 cumulative grade-point average helped her earn spots on the Capital One Academic All-District and Southland Conference All-Academic first teams.
On the court, the engineering major from Mineral Wells, Texas, tied for second in the conference in rebounding (8.7) and double doubles (11), and was 12th in scoring with 12.7 ppg. She also was one of the NCAA's top free-throw shooters, hitting 75.2 percent of her foul shots.
Completing the Wildcats' frontcourt is two-year starter
Lizzy Dimba, who registered five double doubles a season ago to go along with per game averages of 10.8 points and 7.1 rebounds. The Wildcats were the only Southland team last season to have three players rank among the top-10 in rebounds as
Lizzy Dimba finished 10th behind teammates
Suzzy Dimba and Shelstead.
Swinford – a four-year starting guard – again ranked among the conference leaders in 3-point shooting (.292) and makes per game (2.0) and enters her final year 14 games away from 100 and 135 points away from 1,000. Mason, who has been paired in the backcourt the past two seasons with Swinford, also is coming off a quality season that saw her average 11.3 points and 1.8 3-pointers per game.
ACU's bench is composed of senior guard
Paris Webb, sophomores
Alyssa Echols and
Sierra Allen, and the freshman class
McKenzie Martin,
Breklyn Wentz and
Sara Williamson. Wentz is the younger sister of ACU men's basketball senior Parker Wentz, who made quite a name for herself at Trinity Christian. The four-time all-state honoree led her school to three state championships, and twice she was named Defensive Player of the Year.
Williamson competed in this summer's TABC All-Star Game in Austin and earlier led Rockwall High School to a district championship behind an overall record of 27-7. The 5-10 guard also is regarded as one of the top free-throw shooters in the state as she earned consecutive TABC Free Throw awards following her junior and senior years of 2014-15.
Martin played high school ball for Allen and comes in as the Wildcats' tallest player at 6-2. A nominee for McDonald's All-America, Martin averaged 10.4 points and 6.2 rebounds during her career and shot better than 46 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
Echols earned the most playing time of last season's first-year players with 29 appearances and six starts over the final eight games of the season. She also ranked among the Southland leaders with 1.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
Webb transferred to ACU before the start of last season and averaged 1.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game through 27 appearances and eight starts. Allen totaled 123 minutes through 22 games and posted career single-game highs of five rebounds vs. Nicholls and six points vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Following Saturday night's game vs. WBU the Wildcats will hold an early morning practice Sunday and then drive 8.5 hours to Manhattan, Kan., for their second game in as many years at K-State. The battle between the Wildcats takes place Monday at 5:30 p.m. and will be broadcast in Abilene on 98.1-FM 'The Ticket.'
K-State defeated ACU, 68-53, in front of 3,800 spectators en route to a 19-14 season, which included a 15-5 mark at Bramlage Coliseum. Swinford scored 19 points to lead ACU that evening and came up with a career high seven steals.
Rule ChangesRule changes for the women's game going into this season include switching from two 20-minute halves to four 10-minute periods.
This move affects the usage of timeouts, and in each game using electronic-media timeouts; each team will have three 30-second timeouts and one full timeout (60 seconds in length). There must be one electronic-media timeout in each period that occurs at the first team-called timeout above the 5-minute mark of each quarter or the first dead ball at or below the 5-minute mark.
The 60-second timeout may be used in either half, but no more than three timeouts carry over to the second half.
Additionally, a team will be awarded two free throws for each common foul beginning with the fifth team foul in a period.
