ABILENE – Abilene Christian women's basketball makes its ESPN 3 season debut Wednesday night when it visits Stephen F. Austin for game one of a two-game series. This game pits two Southland Conference unbeatens as the Wildcats and Ladyjacks are off to 6-0 and 5-0 starts, respectively. Central Arkansas also enters this week with a 6-0 league record, while Lamar is close behind at 4-1.
ACU won all three of their ESPN3 broadcasts last season, beating Central Arkansas at home, 83-76, and Stephen F. Austin (80-73) and Sam Houston State (72-39) on the road. The Wildcats went 2-1 on ESPN3 last season and are 7-2 overall when their games are streamed by the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
Matchup: Abilene Christian (12-4, 6-0 Southland) at Stephen F. Austin (13-3, 5-0 Southland)
Tipoff: 7 p.m. (CT), Wednesday, Jan. 17
Series: The Wildcats trail their all-time series vs. Stephen F. Austin, 2-6. ACU is 2-1 vs. the Ladyjacks at WRJ Coliseum and 0-2 at Moody Coliseum since the start of the 2013-14 season – the Wildcats first as members of the Southland Conference.
Video:
ESPN3
Stats:
Sidearm Stats
Reading Material:
ACU WBB Game Notes |
SFAJacks.com
Social Media: Follow
@ACUWBB on Twitter and Instagram
Notables
The Ladyjacks make their return trip to Abilene on Feb. 28.
ACU trails its all-time series vs. SFA, 2-6, and is 2-3 vs. the Ladyjacks since entering the Southland Conference in 2013-14 with both those wins coming at WRJ Coliseum (85-70 in 2015-16 and 80-73 in 2016-17) ... The Wildcats are 0-2 at home vs. SFA since the start of the 2013-14 season, falling 71-69 (OT) in 2014-15 and 70-61 in 2016-17.
The Wildcats took a 4-2 series lead on Northwestern State Jan. 13 after posting an 80-41 win Jan. 13 at Moody Coliseum ... The 41 points scored by Northwestern State were the fewest against the Wildcats in Southland Conference play since Sam Houston State scored 39 on Feb. 25, 2017 ... The Wildcats +39 margin of victory was its best in league competition since beating New Orleans 88-44 on Jan. 9, 2014.
The Lady Demons also set season lows with 14 defensive rebounds and 24 rebounds ... These totals were the fewest by an ACU conference opponent since Nicholls totaled 14/19 on Jan. 18, 2017.
ACU recorded a season-high eight blocks for the second consecutive game, led by junior Sara Williamson who set or tied several single-game records with 11 rebounds, four blocks and six steals.
With an ACU record of 117-48 (.709) head coach Julie Goodenough needs just one more win to surpass Suzanne Fox for third place at the school ... Fox won 117 games in five seasons with the Wildcats between 1992-97 ... Burl McCoy remains the program leader with 299 wins accumulated during a 16-year career that lasted between 1976-92 ... Shawna Lavender (2003-12) is second with 149 victories.
As was noted earlier this season, ACU is one of the youngest teams in NCAA D1 basketball this season according to research compiled by the Elon Sports Information Office ... Elon and ACU have the sixth youngest team with each of their rosters composed of 75 percent freshmen and sophomores ... The only schools younger than the Wildcats and Phoenix in terms of first and second-year players are UNC Greensboro (87.7% of roster), Florida International (80) and San Jose State (80), Utah State (76.9) and Air Force (76.5) ... The seven schools that have more Fr. on the roster are FIU, SJSU, Air Force, Elon, Savannah State, Fordham and Kennesaw State ... Of the 12 eligible players on ACU's roster, five are freshmen and nine are either freshmen or sophomores ... As of Jan. 16., only ACU (12-4), Fordham (14-4) and Elon (10-6) have winning records.
