HUNTSVILLE –
Alexis Mason scored 20 points off the bench Thursday night and ACU's defense held Sam Houston State to its third-lowest point total of the season as the Wildcats knocked off the Lady Bearkats, 63-48, in a Southland Conference women's basketball game at Johnson Coliseum.
Coming off the bench for the second straight game, Mason rebounded from a scoreless game last Saturday in ACU's win over Southeastern Louisiana to score 20 points in a game for the fourth time this season. She also had her best shooting night from the field (5 of 11, 45.5 percent) since she hit 8 of 15 from the field (53.3 percent) against Incarnate Word on Jan. 24.
"Alexis really stepped up (Thursday night) and took on the role of coming off the bench and providing her team with a spark," ACU head coach
Julie Goodenough. "She not only gave us a spark offensively, but it was one of her best defensive games of the season as well. She did a nice job of cutting off the dribble drives and getting after it on the defensive end."
Thursday night's game turned less than seven minutes into the second when with the Wildcats leading, 42-40. But Sam Houston State went scoreless from the 13:19 mark to the 5:03 mark of the second half while ACU outscored the Lady Bearkats 13-0 during the span.
Sydney Shelstead had four points in the run,while
Suzzy Dimba had three points and
Paris Webb,
Ellyn Avery and
Whitney West added two points apiece in the tide-turning burst. ACU's lead was never below 11 points the rest of the way.
In the first game between these teams (Jan. 22 in Abilene), the Wildcats led 58-51 with 1:39 to play before allowing Sam Houston State guard Shernise Robertson to go nuts in the final 90 seconds. She scored 10 of her game-high 28 points in the final 90 seconds to lead the Lady Bearkats to a 63-58 victory.
But Thursday night in Huntsville, the Wildcats shut down Robertson, holding her to her third-lowest point total of the season as she scored just seven points on 3 of 11 shooting. As a team the Lady Bearkats hit just 16 of 46 shots from the field (34.8 percent), including just 5 of 17 from beyond the 3-point arc (29.4 percent).
On the other side, the Wildcats were led by Mason's 20 points and
Suzzy Dimba's ninth double-double of the season (20th of her career) with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Every Wildcat who played scored, and the ACU bench scored 29 points, led by Mason's 20 points.
The Wildcats' second straight win and fifth in their last seven games pushes them to 13-10 overall and 5-7 in the Southland. Sam Houston State, meanwhile, falls to 6-16 and 5-7. ACU won't play again until Wednesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11-11, 7-4) at Moody Coliseum.
