COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –
Whitney West Swinford and
Alexis Mason drained Abilene Christian's first two 3-point attempts within the opening minutes and the Wildcats never once trailed in a 83-59 thrashing of 2015 WNIT qualifier Eastern Michigan Saturday afternoon at Air Force's Clune Arena.
The win lifted ACU's overall record to 6-2 as the Wildcats captured their second straight neutral-site tournament in as many season. Last year they beat George Mason and UMKC at the Plaza Lights Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
The loss dropped Eastern Michigan's mark to 4-2. Their only other loss was to No. 11 Kentucky, 89-67, in Rupp Arena.
Mason led all scorers with a career-high 29 points, besting her previous record of 28, which was set last season vs. George Mason. She also broke her single-game 3-pointers made and attempted records vs. Lamar last season, hitting 7-of-16 shots as the Wildcats set season highs with 14 treys and 3-point field goal percentage (.400).
Swinford scored 20 points for the sixth time in her career, while setting new single-game marks with six 3-pointers and seven rebounds.
Lizzy Dimba recorded her second double-double of the season behind 10 points and a Wildcat-high 11 rebounds, and sophomore
Sierra Allen reached double figures for the third straight game off the bench, scoring 10 points in 17 minutes.
ACU took a 37-29 lead into the break and made their first 3-pointers to start the second half courtesy of Swinford, Mason and Swinford again, the last of which put the Wildcats ahead at 46-29. EMU then took off on an 8-0 run that lasted the better part of four minutes to trim its deficit to nine points, but then Swinford nailed back-to-back treys with a 45-second span. Mason matched Swinford's feat with two treys of her own to close the third quarter, which put the Wildcats ahead 58-40 going into the final quarter.
The Wildcats quickly went up by 20 points on a jumper by Allen to start the fourth quarter and grabbed its largest lead of the afternoon at 26 points following a jumper by
Lizzy Dimba.
EMU put a minor scare into the Wildcats after hitting a pair of 3-pointers around the six-minute mark to trim ACU's lead to 18, but soon afterward ACU would hit eight-straight foul shots to get their lead back above 20 points. Freshman
McKenzie Martin put the finishing touches on today's masterpiece with a 3-pointer taken with 15 seconds left.
ACU's defense was equally remarkable, holding an EMU team that was averaging close to 80.0 points per game this season to 28.6 percent shooting (20-70). Eagles' guards Cha Sweeney and Janay Morton were a combined 7-of-31 for 24 points and some of their post players struggled as well. Starter Rachel Kehoe (6-foot-4) missed four of five shots in the paint and Chanise Baldwin (6-foot-3) was 2-of-6 coming off the bench.
Sera Ozelci hit four 3-pointers for the Eagles to finish with 12 points but was only able to put up six attempts.
Suzzy Dimba had her block streak snapped at 19 games last night vs. Grand Canyon, but came back today with three rejections plus four steals and eight rebounds.
After the Wildcats' long-distance attempts started to fall by the wayside late in the first quarter an into the second they found ways around EMU's height advantage, finishing the first half with 18 points in the paint. ACU won that category, 22-16, turned 18 turnovers into 23 points, and despite being outrebounded on the offensive glass, 25-16, scored 24 second-chance points to only 10 for the Eagles.
EMU's 50 rebounds were an opponent season high as were its 70 field-goal attempts.
The Wildcats are off this week for final exams. They will return to action in a little under two weeks for a two-game road trip at Eastern Washington (Dec. 18) and Idaho (Dec. 20). ACU defeated Eastern Washington at Moody Coliseum last season, 79-72.
Air Force Classic All-Tournament Team Sierra Allen – ACUChanise Baldwin – EMU
Courtney Hayes - GCU
Cheyenne Hedrington – GCU
Alexis Mason – ACU MVP – Alexis Mason ACU
