ABILENE – Abilene Christian head women's basketball coach
Julie Goodenough will reach another milestone Wednesday night at New Orleans when her Wildcats begin their sixth season of Southland Conference competition as she will be coaching her 700th collegiate game.
In 25 years as a head coach who has won conference titles at all three NCAA levels and NAIA, Goodenough enters this week with an overall record of 417-282 (.597) and a 128-62 (.673) mark through six winning seasons at ACU. Goodenough's coaching career began in 1993 with Hardin-Simmons, where she won 188 games, followed by 23 at Oklahoma State and 78 at Charleston Southern.
Her first two teams at HSU reached the NAIA tournament and her last four (1998-02) all played deep into the NCAA D3 Tournament. She then steered the Buccaneers of CSU to two WBI appearances, and has taken the Wildcats to two WNITs and one D2 regional.
Of the 13 head coaches in the Southand Conference only Royce Chadwick (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and Sandra Rushing (Central Arkansas) have coached more games than Goodenough. Chadwick has coached 1,056 games through 35 seasons, while Rushing is at 857 in her 30th season. Nicholls' head coach DoBee Plaisance is right behind Goodenough with 690 head coaching appearances in 22 years.
Five of Goodenough's 417 wins have come against the Privateers, who enter the Southland Conference lid-lifter with a season record 4-5. UNO's lone D1 win this season was against Memphis, while their losses have come against the likes of Xavier, Miami, Rice, ULM and Pittsburgh.
ACU (7-4) has won the last four games in its series vs. New Orleans, including two victories from last season. The Wildcats topped the Privateers, 80-70, at Moody Coliseum, and posted a huge 88-66 win over them in the first round of the Southland Conference Championship Tournament thanks to a combined 45 points from juniors
Dominique Golightly (22) and
Breanna Wright (23).
UNO was picked to finish seventh in this year's conference preseason poll, totaling 153 points, and ACU was one place ahead of it with 178 points. The Privateers are led this season by Shania Woods, who ranks among the league's leaders with 14.0 points (.491 FG %) and 8.7 rebounds per game. Whitney Larry is No. 1 in the league with 1.78 blocks per game and is eighth with 6.4 rpg.
The Wildcats are coming off one of their toughest stretches of the season, having lost three straight to Arkansas, FGCU and Texas Tech, but still have several individuals ranked among the league's top-10.
Wright is fourth with a .857 free-throw percentages and is third with 4.6 assists per game and eighth with a 1.4 assist / turnover ratio. Senior
Sara Williamson is fifth with 3.8 apg and 1.5 assist / turnover ratio, and is No. 6 in blocks with 1.3 per game. Sophomore
Makayla Mabry is right behind her with 1.1 bpg.
Golightly is No. 8 with 1.9 3-point field goals made per game, and junior
Lexie Ducat cracks the top-10 with 6.4 rebounds per game.
Fans who can't make it to UNO for the 7 p.m. tip can
watch,
listen or follow
live stats through links made available at ACUSports.com.
