HOUSTON – Two-time defending regular-season Southland Conference champion ACU has been picked to finish fifth in the league's women's basketball pre-season poll, which was released Monday morning at the league's Media Day event at the Toyota Center.
The Wildcats are 33-3 in the Southland Conference, won the league outright in 2015-16 (17-1 in the league) and shared the regular-season crown with Central Arkansas in 2016-17 (16-2 in the league). ACU went on to the Women's NIT in each of the last two seasons and beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., in last year's first round before falling in a close game at SMU in the second round.
But the Wildcats lost seniors
Alexis Mason, twins Suzzy and
Lizzy Dimba and post
Sydney Shelstead off last year's team. Those four players helped the Wildcats to a combined record of 84-45 over the last four seasons (50-18 in league play), two regular-season titles and two WNIT bids. They also represented 71 percent of the team's scoring last season.
In their first year of eligibility for both the Southland and NCAA tournaments, the Wildcats of sixth-year head coach
Julie Goodenough will look to sophomore point guard
Breanna Wright and other returners in
Sierra Allen,
Sara Williamson,
Lexi Kirgan,
Dominique Golightly,
Pamela Herrera and
Taudenciah Oluoch to lead a team that will also feature five new freshmen.
The Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in the poll behind pre-season favorite Lamar, followed by two-time defending league tournament champion Central Arkansas, Stephen F. Austin and New Orleans.
"Where we landed in the pre-season poll was pretty respectful considering what we lost," said Goodenough, who is 105-44 in her five seasons as the Wildcats' head coach. "That's probably more of a reflection of our body of work that we've put up the last couple of years, so it's a very respectful place to start the season."
Lamar – which finished third in last year's regular season and lost in the semifinals of the post-season conference tournament – received received 18 first-place votes from the Southland Conference's head coaches and sports information directors to earn the top spot in the league's preseason poll. Central Arkansas earned the second-place spot with six first-place votes while Stephen F. Austin is favored for third place with two first-place votes.
The Cardinals return all five starters from a well-rounded team that finished third in league play in scoring offense (74.1 points per game), second in scoring defense (58.2 points allowed per game) and first in scoring margin (+15.9). Lamar also ranked second in field goal percentage defense, holding Southland opponents to .379 per game and rebounding offense (41.6 per game).
Reigning champion Central Arkansas received six first-place votes to earn the No. 2 spot. The Sugar Bears won their second-straight regular season and tournament title last season and look to become the first Southland program to earn three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths since SFA accomplished the feat from 2000 to 2002. The team must fill a gap left in the wake of graduated all-conference guards Maggie Proffitt and Brianna Mullins and all-defensive center Raquel Logan. In all, UCA lost nearly 60 percent of their scoring and assists from last season.
The team returns two key contributors from last season in senior center Kierra Jordan and senior forward Taylor Baudoin. Both preseason all-conference picks, Jordan ranked third in conference play in 2016-17 with a .590 field goal percentage while Baudoin ranked fifth with .541.
Stephen F. Austin enters at the No. 3 spot with two first-place votes. With the graduation of 2016-17 Southland Player of the Year Taylor Ross, the Ladyjacks look to redshirt senior Stevi Parker to lead the Southland's all-time winningest women's basketball team. Parker averaged 11.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, two assists and a steal per game in overall play last season, starting all 33 games.
SFA led the Southland with 77.2 points per game and ranked second in field goal percentage (.468) against conference opponents.
New Orleans and Abilene Christian were voted to the No. 4 and 5 spots, respectively, to round out the top five. McNeese, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Northwestern State, Nicholls and UIW completed the top 10 in that order while Houston Baptist, Southeastern Louisiana and Sam Houston State are picked 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively.
2017-18 Southland Conference Women's Basketball Pre-Season Poll
Voted on by league's head coaches and sports information directors
| Team (1st-Place Votes) |
Points |
| 1. Lamar (18) |
279 |
| 2. Central Arkansas (6) |
260 |
| 3. Stephen F. Austin (2) |
244 |
| 4. New Orleans |
213 |
| 5. Abilene Christian |
186 |
| 6. McNeese |
163 |
| 7. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
147 |
| 8. Northwestern State |
133 |
| 9. Nicholls |
132 |
| 10. Incarnate Word |
92 |
| 11. Houston Baptist |
71 |
| 12. Southeastern Louisiana |
68 |
| 13. Sam Houston State |
40 |
