ABILENE - Abilene Christian women's basketball finished its second round WNIT Consolation Game on a 15-3 run to beat UT Rio Grande Valley, 70-54, Saturday night at Moody Coliseum.
Senior forward
Sydney Shelstead led all players with 26 points as she broke the school's single-game records with 15 free throws and 20 attempts, while sophomore
Sara Williamson recorded a career high 16 points while helping the Wildcats get off to a fast start in the second half.
ACU (3-1) led 32-31 at halftime and quickly ballooned its lead to 14 points thanks to a 13-0 run that lasted the first 4:28 of the third quarter. Williamson exploded out of the gate with a driving layup on the Wildcats' first possession, and after
Lizzy Dimba pulled down one of her five rebounds, she fed the ball to Williamson, who knocked down her lone 3-pointer of the game.
Shelstead was then fouled on consecutive possessions and made all four of her free throws in pushing ACU's lead to 10 with 7:21 remaining, and Williamson added a 3-point play at the 6:42 mark.
UT Rio Grande (1-2) didn't make its first bucket until 5:22 of the third quarter – a jumper by Shawte' Goff – but after trailing by 16 points with a minute remaining, the Vaqueros began to fight their way back into the ball game by creating six turnovers within a five-minute span between the third and fourth quarters.
UTRGV scored the final five points of the third quarter to enter the final stanza down by 10 points, 55-45, and continued to hold the Wildcats scoreless for the opening 5:22 of the fourth quarter to make it a two-possession game at 55-51. But once the Vaqueros seemingly began to take control, Williamson dashed to the basket for a fast-break layup and provided the spark that ultimately led to ACU's monster closing run.
The Vaqueros missed their next two shots afterward and then Williamson dished out one of her five assists to Shelstead, whose bucket at the 3:48 mark made it an eight-point game at 59-51.
From there Shelstead made a steal and was immediately fouled by Mary Savoy, which led to another foul shot plus an offensive rebound pulled down by
Lizzy Dimba. Dimba also was fouled and her two free throws with 3:32 remaining gave the Wildcats back their double-digit lead, which they would not relinquish.
ACU hit two more layups down the stretch and Shelstead made four more free throws in giving the Wildcats their largest lead of the night at 70-51 with 42 seconds to go.
Shelstead's 15 free throws broke the record of 14 shared by Jody Meyer (vs. Central Okla., March 4, 2010) and Mack Lankford (vs. Tarleton State, Jan. 14, 2012) and her 20 free throw attempts broke the record of 19 previously held by Meyer since Nov. 24, 2009 (vs. UT Permian Basin). Shelstead's 26-point / 14-rebound double-double was the 21st of her career.
Overall, the Wildcats made 33 trips to the charity stripe and knocked down 78.8 percent of their attempts, while the Vaqueros hit 8-of-12.
ACU additionally dominated the glass, 50-32, and scored 17 second-chance points off 22 offensive rebounds.
Goff was the Vaqueros' leading performer tonight with 13 points on 4-of-19 shooting and four free throws. She scored 29 points in last night's win against North Texas.
With tonight's victory, the Wildcats have now finished four-consecutive in-season tournaments with winning records. ACU beat Jacksonville and Texas Tech on consecutive days in Lubbock in late December of 2013. Then the Wildcats won a Thanksgiving Weekend tournament at UMKC in 2014, and last December they won the Air Force Classic over Grand Canyon and Eastern Michigan.
The Wildcats return to action a week from today to play at No. 24 / RV Texas A&M. Tip off is at 6 p.m. and the game will be carried by the SEC Network +.
