FORT MYERS, Fla. – Senior
Sara Williamson scored 22 points on 9-10 shooting from the field and junior
Dominique Golightly added 19 points during the Wildcats' 81-65 loss Monday night at Florida Gulf Coast, ranked No. 7 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll.
The Eagles improved to 8-2 with the win, while the Wildcats fell to 7-3 with one non-conference game remaining at Texas Tech on Saturday, Dec. 29.
ACU led by five points after the first quarter and by as many as seven points early in the second quarter following a Williamson layup, but the Eagles soon reversed that deficit with a 16-2 run over a span of five minutes. The Wildcats went on to hold FGCU without a field goal over the final 5:14, but couldn't get any closer than three points of the lead as they only received a Williamson jumper and
Breanna Wright 3-pointer down the stretch as part of a nine-point quarter.
Wright's trey cut FGCU's lead to 35-33, but the Eagles were able to get one point back at the foul line as time expired.
ACU continued to hang with the Eagles for much of the third quarter until the home team finished on an 8-2 run over the final 2:52 after a Golightly free throw made it a one-possession game at 49-47. FGCU's late burst provided an eight-point lead heading into the final quarter, where they buried three of their nine 3-pointers in a short span of 2:15 to balloon an eight-point advantage into 15 with 3:50 remaining.
Davion Wingate hit the Eagles' fourth trey of the last quarter with 26 seconds left in giving FGCU its largest lead of the night at 18 points (81-63), and then Wright sank a layup in the closing seconds to finish with seven points.
ACU was 18-of-33 on layups and 23-of-50 (.460) overall from the floor, but only made 3-of-11 3-pointers (.273) while the Eagles dropped in 9-of-25 (.360). The Wildcats also fared well at the free-throw line in hitting 16-of-19 attempts (.842).
FGCU's solid fourth quarter shooting (10-16, .625) lifted the Eagles' overall shooting percentage to 50.8 (32-63).
