ABILENE – Junior
Sydney Shelstead recorded her 14th career double-double and all five starters reached double figures in scoring as Abilene Christian women's basketball stormed NAIA Wayland Baptist, 96-71, Saturday night at Moody Coliseum in the 2015-16 season opener.
Shelstead's 26 points gave her a fifth career game of 20-or-more points and were one off her season high of 27 reached last December at home vs. Eastern Washington. The Wildcats tonight also received 18 points from
Alexis Mason, 13 from
Lizzy Dimba, 12 from Whitney (West) Swinford and 10 from
Suzzy Dimba, while the bench chipped in the remaining 17 points.
Sophomore
Sierra Allen was a perfect 3-of-3 from the field in finishing with seven points, while freshman
McKenzie Martin connected on 3-of-4 attempts, including one 3-pointer.
Tonight's game also marked the debut of the NCAA women's basketball 10-minute, four-quarter system, which replaced the two 20-minute halves.
ACU outscored WBU in the first quarter by 12 points, 34-22, thanks to 64.7 percent shooting from the field (11-17) with three 3-pointers and nine free throws, and went into halftime up 62-45 as Shelstead finished the second quarter with nine points.
The Wildcats grabbed their largest lead of the half at 22 points following an
Alexis Mason trey with 2:46 remaining in the second quarter, but that advantage was trimmed all the way down to 10 points as the Flying Queens took off on a 9-2 run to begin the second half.
WBU's run stated with consecutive buckets from Jade Jones and Shawna Monreal within a 20-second span in the opening moments of the third quarter. Stephanie Afunugo then hit a running layup to cut ACU's lead to 64-52 and on their next possession Monreal hit both her free throws after being fouled by Mason.
For the next two minutes both sides went cold shooting until Swinford buried a 3-pointer off an assist from
Paris Webb coming out of the media time out. WBU then turned it over with Swinford feeding Mason for a fast-break basket to push ACU's lead back out to 15, and after Brianna Bogard sank a 3-pointer to once again make it a 12-point game the Wildcats finished the quarter on a 9-2 run with points coming from Allen, Mason and Webb.
Mason recorded eight of her 18 points in the third quarter.
ACU's defense took over in the fourth quarter, holding the Flying Queens to only nine points on 4-18 shooting with 6-foot-4 Krystal Forthan responsible for six of those points before fouling out.
Afunugo led WBU in scoring with 15 points, while Jones came up a rebound shy of a double-double, finishing with 10 points and nine rebounds.
For the game ACU outshot WBU .508 to .382, and went to the foul line 32 times to only 18 trips for the Flying Queens. WBU missed several foul shots in the third quarter that would have trimmed their deficit well into the single digits and finished the night 10-18 from the charity stripe.
By comparison ACU made 21-32 foul shots and won the rebounding battle, 50-35. Additionally, the Wildcats' 25 assists were their most since registering 30 in a 2013 game vs. Northwood. Swinford led all players with seven assists, tying a career high.
The Wildcats return to action Monday at 5:30 p.m. for a game at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan Kan., vs. Kansas State. The game will air locally on 98.1 FM – The Ticket with the "Voice of the Wildcats"
Grant Boone handling play-by-play duties.
K-State defeated the Wildcats on their home court last season, 68-53.
