SAN ANTONIO - Senior guard
Alexis Mason helped spark a fourth-quarter rally in her first game back from injury, scoring six points in eight minutes, but her 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short and the Roadrunners escaped the UTSA Convocation Center with a 71-68 victory Tuesday night.
ACU (3-3) trailed by as many as 16 points late in the third quarter and by 13 with 8:25 remaining before making a final charge. The Wildcats reduced their deficit to single digits thanks to consecutive treys by
Sierra Allen and
Pamela Herrera at the 7:59 and 7:15 marks and then Mason made it a two-possession game with her layup with 6:51 to go.
UTSA (2-5) responded to the threat with a 3-pointer by Carlie Heineman that put the home team back up by 10 points at 69-59, and had to hold on once more as ACU scored four of the game's last five field goals, including a trey by
Lizzy Dimba that made it a 3-point contest with 53 seconds remaining. ACU called timeout and got the defensive stop and rebound it wanted, but the Roadrunners slowed the Wildcats with consecutive fouls, and with close to no time remaining Mason missed her desperation three.
In playing for the first time since an exhibition win Nov. 7 vs. McMurry, Mason totaled eight points on 3-of-9 shooting with two free throws but was 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. She also was pressured into four of the team's 24 turnovers, which the Roadrunners converted into 35 points.
The Wildcats additionally were hurt by 15 UTSA offensive rebounds that led to 21 second-chance points and a somewhat off night for the Starting Five, which contributed 33 points on 12-of-36 shooting (.333). ACU's bench, however, helped the Wildcats stay in the game as freshman
Dominique Golightly scored a game high 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting with three 3-pointers and Allen reached double figures for the fourth time in five games, scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and a pair of treys.
ACU led for a short time late in the first quarter as it finished on a 7-2 run that put the visitors ahead 15-13 after the first 10 minutes, but the entire second quarter was dominated by the Roadrunners as they limited the Wildcats to only nine points on 1-of-9 shooting and six free throws. It was also during this quarter that UTSA scored 18 of its 24 points off 11 ACU turnovers and banked in seven free throws to take a 37-24 lead into the break.
The Wildcats made up some ground in the third quarter, outscoring the Roadrunners, 22-18, thanks to a late 7-0 run that include a 3-pointer by Golightly and consecutive buckets by Allen that cut ACU's deficit to nine points at 55-46 entering the fourth quarter.
ACU overall shot 42.4 (25-59) from the floor and was fairly solid from 3-point range, knocking down 11-of-26 attempts (42.3). However, the Wildcats (7-11, 63.6) did not get to the free-throw line as frequently as UTSA, which made 14-of-20 (70.0) tries.
The Roadrunners had four players reach double figures led by Tesha Smith, who came off the bench to score 17 points (5-13, 7-9 FT) in 29 minutes. Loryn Goodwin also had a productive evening with 16 points, six assists and eight steals.
ACU concludes its three-game road trip Thursday at Baylor (7-1), which came in at No. 4 today in both the AP and WBCA / USA Today Top 25 Coaches' Poll. Tip off between the Bears and Wildcats on Fox College Sports in 7 p.m.
