ABILENE – Abilene Christian women's basketball concludes its two-game road trip Saturday at Central Arkansas for a game between two of the best Southland Conference programs over the past two-plus seasons. The Wildcats and Sugar Bears enter this contest tied for second place within the league at 6-1, 0.5 game behind 6-0 Stephen F. Austin, which Wednesday defeated the Wildcats at WRJ Coliseum, 66-55.
Saturday's doubleheader involving ACU's and UCA's women's and men's teams will be live streamed on ESPN3.
Matchup: Abilene Christian (12-5, 6-1 Southland) at Central Arkansas (13-5, 6-1 Southland)
Tipoff: 1 p.m. (CT), Saturday, Jan. 20
Series: The Wildcats trail their all-time series vs. Stephen F. Austin, 2-3. ACU is 1-1 vs. the Sugar Bears at the Farris Center and 1-1 at Moody Coliseum since the start of the 2013-14 season – the Wildcats first as members of the Southland Conference.
Video:
ESPN3
Audio:
98.1 FM – The Ticket with
Grant Boone handling the play-by-play
Stats:
Sidearm Stats
Reading Material:
ACU WBB Game Notes |
UCASports.com
Social Media: Follow
@ACUWBB on Twitter and Instagram
Notables
The Sugar Bears make their return trip to Abilene on Feb. 24.
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 7-3 overall when their games are streamed by the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
ACU is making its third-ever appearance at Central Arkansas' Farris Center ... The Wildcats are 1-1 all-time at UCA, winning 61-49 during the 2015-16 season and losing 80-70 their during the 2016-17 campaign ... The Wildcats trail the all-time series vs. UCA 2-3 as the Sugar Bears won the first two meeting played between 2014 and 2015.
ACU and UCA have been premier rivals the past two seasons with the Wildcats winning the 2015-16 Southland Conference Championship over the Sugar Bears by 1.0 game and tying for last year's crown with matching 16-2 records ... Over the past two-plus seasons, ACU is 39-4 (.907) vs. the Southland while UCA is right behind them at 38-5 (.884).
The Wildcats saw its season-best, seven-game winning streak end Jan. 17 following a 66-55 loss at Stephen F. Austin ... The Ladyjacks held ACU to a season-low 25 second-half points on .333 shooting (.240 3-point range) in addition to 16 defensive rebounds.
ACU's seven-game winning streak was its fourth longest under head coach
Julie Goodenough ... The team posted streaks of 14 and eight victories during its 2015-16 season ... The Wildcats also registered eight-game win streaks during the 2016-17 and 2012-13 seasons.
Sierra Allen led ACU with 17 points, but starting guards Breanna Wright and Dominique Golightly went a combined 2-24 from the field (1-15 3-point range) while collecting 79 minutes ... Golightly's 39 minutes were a career single-game high, while Wright's complete game was her fifth of the season and ninth of career.
ACU suffered its first loss through nine games with the lineup of Allen, Golightly, Wright, Sara Williamson and Kayla Galindo (8-1) ... They also lost for the first time this season when leading at halftime (30-29) and outrebounding the opposition (36-34) ... ACU went 18-1 when leading at halftime last season with its only blemish a 71-68 OT home loss to UMKC ... The Wildcats led 39-26 at the break.
Lexi Kirgan scored 11 bench points and made her first career 3-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer.
SFA's 24 free throws tied an opponent season high.
Julie Goodenough needs one more victory to pass former ACU head coach Suzanne Fox for the third-most wins with the Wildcats. Each coach has won 117 games while on the ACU bench.
