ABILENE – Abilene Christian will have its toughest test of its non-conference scheduled Monday night when it visits 2018 NCAA Tournament qualifier FGCU for a 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) tip off at Fort Myers' Alico Arena. The Eagles are off to a 7-2 start and ranked seventh in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll while the Wildcats' are high up in the receiving votes column.
Monday's game will be streamed via
ESPN+ and air locally on
98.1 FM – The Ticket with
Zach Carlyle handling the play-by-play. FGCU's web site also will offer
real-time statistics.
This is the second meeting in as many years for the Wildcats and Eagles. FGCU visited ACU's Moody Coliseum last year and walked out with a 94-55 victory as the Eagles tied a program record with 22 3-point baskets en route to a 31-5 campaign, which included a first-round NCAA Tournament win over fifth-seeded Missouri. The Eagles continue to be one of the nation's best 3-point shooting teams as they're tied for first nationally with DePaul at 12.9 treys per game and second to the Blue Demons with 116 makes on 333 attempts (.348).
FGCU (102 RPI) also is a top-15 team in scoring offense with 84.1 points per game and ranks 38th with only 118 turnovers through nine games.
ACU is 7-2 overall and is only a few spots behind the Eagles in the RPI at 120 with their lone losses coming against Tulsa (112 RPI) and Arkansas (49 RPI), which used a big fourth quarter last Saturday (Dec. 8) to beat the Wildcats, 80-68, in Abilene.
The Wildcats currently are ranked 14th nationally with a .244 3-point field goal percentage defense and have the seventh-best rebounding margin at +13.8 as they are pulling down 43.4 boards per game. ACU also leads the Southland Conference in win-loss percentage, scoring margin (+23.1) and assists per game (18.0).
Junior guard
Breanna Wright already has dished out 47 assists this fall, and against the Razorbacks she became the Wildcats' D1 era leader with 301 career assists in only 71 games played. She is averaging 4.2 assists per game for her career.
Wildcat junior post
Lexie Ducat is tops in the Southland Conference with a .536 field-goal percentage, while both
Makayla Mabry and
Sara Williamson are averaging 1.2 blocks per game to rank sixth in the league.
