LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Abilene Christian women's basketball knocked off the defending WAC regular-season champions and WNIT qualifiers from New Mexico State, 58-46, to begin a three-game road trip Tuesday night at the Pan American Center.
The Wildcats remain undefeated at 4-0 while the Aggies slipped to 3-1.
ACU went into halftime trailing 23-22 after scoring only five points in the second quarter, but went on to outscore the Aggies, 36-23, in the second half propelled by a 15-for-18 fourth-quarter effort from the free-throw line. By comparison, New Mexico State missed 15 fourth-quarter field goal attempts and made less than half of its free-throw attempts (7-15) over the final 20 minutes.
ACU's defense limited the Aggies to .308 shooting from the floor (16-52) and .182 from 3-point range (4-22). The Wildcats additionally outrebounded the Aggies, 37-31, and scored 17 points off 21 New Mexico State turnovers.
The Wildcat offense shot slightly lower than the Aggies (.286), but received double-digit scoring efforts from three of its starters. Junior guard
Breanna Wright (40 minutes) scored an ACU high 15 points with five assists.
Dominique Golightly totaled 14 points behind three 3-pointers, and senior
Sara Williamson made half of her eight field goals and added five free throws to finish with 13 points.
Sophomore
Makayla Mabry was the Wildcats' leading rebounder with 11 through 38 minutes of playing time.
ACU led the game for the better part of 37 minutes as it jumped out to a 17-8 lead in the first quarter. Wright and Golightly got the Wildcats off to a desired start with a pair of treys within the first 90 seconds, and a second 3-pointer from Golightly put the visitors ahead 13-2 just prior to the media timeout.
The Wildcats continued to lead through most of the second quarter even though they only connected on two field goal attempts. The Aggies got within a point (22-21) with 1:11 to go before halftime on a layup by Gia Pack (22 points) and then Aaliyah Prince sank a layup with 15 seconds remaining.
New Mexico State scored the first two points of the second half on a pair of Pack free throws to go up 25-22; however, Wright would quickly put the Wildcats back in front with a fast-break 3-pointer followed by a layup 47 seconds later. The Jarrell, Texas, native then hit another basket in the closing seconds of the third quarter to put her side up for good (37-36) as the Wildcats started the final quarter on a 6-1 run.
ACU went up by nine points on a pair of free-throws by
Sara Williamson with 3:13 to go, and iced the game with seven (on eight attempts) free throws over the final 1:15.
Next up for the Wildcats is a trip to UTEP for the Miners' Thanksgiving Classic. They'll play Texas Southern Friday afternoon and host UTEP Saturday night.
Rice defeated Texas Southern tonight in Houston, 76-71.
