ABILENE – It wasn't all bad news for Abilene Christian women's basketball Wednesday night.
Yes, the Wildcats lost their regular-season home finale to Stephen F. Austin, 78-52, at Moody Coliseum, but shortly after returning to the locker room, New Orleans helped ACU qualify for its first Southland Conference Championship Tournament by edging Southeastern Louisiana, 74-71.
The loss dropped the Lady Lions' conference record to 7-10, eliminating them from postseason contention as they sit 2.0 games behind the seventh-place Wildcats with only Saturday's games left to play. Southeastern also cannot catch McNeese for the eighth and final tournament spot since the Cowgirls swept their two-game season series.
ACU (15-12, 9-8 Southland) will play its final regular-season game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Incarnate Word, which it defeated earlier this month on a
Sara Williamson buzzer beater, and at best, can finish in a tie for fifth place depending on the final records of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (10-7) and Nicholls (10-7). The Islanders are at Houston Baptist (6-11) Saturday, while the Colonels are at Southeastern La.
The Ladyjacks (23-5, 15-2 Southland) are locked into the tournament's No. 2 seed after losing their Senior Day game last Saturday to the regular-season champions from Lamar (16-1), 75-58, and tonight it appeared they let loose their frustrations on the Wildcats.
SFA buried 10 3-pointers on 18 first-half attempts in taking a 43-24 lead at halftime, and went on to win the third and fourth quarters with Marissa Banfield scoring a team-high 17 points off the bench. Banfield hit 6-of-9 field goals and was 4-6 from beyond the arc.
The Ladyjacks additionally received 12 and 10 points, respectively, from starters Imani Johnson and Taylor Jackson, while reserve Lovisa Brunnberg nailed three triples in finishing with 15 points.
ACU struggled from long-distance, hitting on 20 percent of their 30 attempts, and overall made just 21-of-54 field goal tries. Senior
Sierra Allen led her side with 13 points in her final Moody Coliseum appearance and tied sophomore teammate
Dominique Golightly for the team lead in rebounds with seven.
Senior
Taudenciah Oluoch also hit double figures in her last home contest, making 4-5 shots and two free throws to finish with 10 points and five rebounds.
Williamson (4-5) and freshman
Kayla Galindo each scored nine points from the bench. Galindo was successful on 3-of-6 3-point attempts.
