Women's Basketball | 1/20/2016 1:50:00 PM
Game Notes | CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Live stats | Video | Audio ABILENE – Abilene Christian women's basketball looks to extend several notable winning streaks Thursday when the Wildcats visit Sam Houston State's Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum for a 6:30 p.m. Southland Conference game vs. the Bearkats.
BearkatSports.com will offer live stats and video stream; while
Grant Boone's broadcast can be heard back in Abilene and worldwide via
Stretch Internet.
The ACU and Sam Houston State series dates back to 1980 and the Wildcats have won eight of 14 games, including two of three since joining the Southland Conference in 2013-14.
The Bearkats and Wildcats split last year's season series with each school winning on the road. Sam Houston State upset the Wildcats at home on Jan. 22, 63-58, as they overcame a seven-point deficit with 1:39 remaining led by Shernise Robertson, who scored 10 of her game-high 28 points in the closing minutes. ACU's
Whitney West Swinford carried her side with 23 points (one shy of a career single-game high) on 9-15 (.600) shooting.
ACU beat the Bearkats, 63-48, three weeks later in Huntsville. Key to the Wildcats' victory was 20 bench points from guard
Alexis Mason and a second-half defense that allowed 21 points on 7-24 shooting (.292).
Mason's no longer coming off the bench for the Wildcats, in fact, she's started every game this season and has won the last two Southland Conference Player of the Week awards behind 22.3 points per game.
ACU (10-2, 5-0 Southland) last week posted consecutive wins over McNeese and Stephen F. Austin to push its winning streak to 10 games and road winning streak to seven. The Wildcats also are the only remaining undefeated Southland school within conference play.
For her part, Mason scored 15 of her 21 points versus SFA in a dominant fourth quarter as the Wildcats flipped a 60-59 deficit into a 15-point win – their first ever triumph against the Ladyjacks. Earlier in the week Mason totaled 26 points on 9-17 (.529) shooting with two 3-pointers and six free throws at home vs. McNeese. One of her two treys was a 25-foot buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter.
In the program's first win over SFA the Wildcats scored 29 of their 85 points in the fourth quarter, where the Wildcats have outscored the opposition this season, 323-20. It was ACU's third largest offensive quarter and biggest since tallying 30 in the first quarter at Nicholls. The Wildcats started this season with a 34-point first quarter vs. Wayland Baptist.
ACU also had to rally back from a small deficit at home vs. McNeese. The Wildcats led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter only to see the Cowgirls take off on a 30-18 run during a 12-minute span in taking their first and only lead at 33-32.
ACU came right back to take a one-point lead into halftime and outscored McNeese in the second half, 42-26.
The Cowgirls shot just .269 for the game and only went to the foul line twice in the second half after making 19 trips in the first half. Post players
Sydney Shelstead (22/12) and
Suzzy Dimba (11/11) each had a double-double vs. McNeese while Mason finished three points shy of her single-game high.
Sam Houston State (7-9, 3-3 Southland) is currently tied with Houston Baptist for sixth place in the league after losing its last two games by single digits. The Bearkats were edged last Wednesday at home by Nicholls, 67-63, and lost at McNeese by three points Saturday, 82-79.
Robertson continues to lead SHSU and the Southland Conference in scoring with 17.7 points per game, while Angela Beadle is close behind with 13.6 ppg and ranks among the league leaders with 8.8 rebounds per game.
