CORPUS CHRISTI – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi battled back from a 20-point third-quarter deficit to get within a point with 1:09 to go, but Abilene Christian juniors
Dominique Golightly and
Breanna Wright saved the day with a combined seven points over the final 45 seconds to help the Wildcats escape the Dugan Wellness Center with a 72-68 win Wednesday night.
The win lifted ACU's overall and Southland Conference records to 14-6 and 7-2, while the Islanders slipped to 10-8 and 4-3.
The Wildcats led for a majority of the game (36:04) and with 17 minutes left in regulation they led by as many as 20 points (44-24) after starting the third quarter on an 8-2 run with four points coming from both Wright (17 points, three assists) and classmate
Lexie Ducat (14 points, five rebounds). The Islanders, however, were able to finish the quarter on a 15-6 run to trim ACU's lead to 11 points (50-39) and scored the first two buckets of the fourth quarter to make it a seven-point game at 50-43.
ACU answered with three buckets on their next three possessions to get back up by 12 points (58-46). Sophomore
Makayla Mabry (seven points) hit a pair of layups within a span of 30 seconds and then freshman
Madi Miller hit her first field goal with 6:04 to go. Miller also would sink a 3-pointer at the the 4:17 mark only to see it countered immediately by La'Janeira Robinson's trey 22 seconds later.
Robinson's bucket ignited a 13-2 Islanders' run over 3:08 in which the home team hit 5-of-6 field goals (two 3-pointers), and if not for a pair of missed free throws by Dae Dae Evans they would have grabbed the lead. After Evans missed her first of two free-throw attempts at the 1:09 mark, the Wildcats ran down some clock and with 45 seconds in regulation senior
Sara Williamson (five assists) found Golightly for her third triple of the game.
Golightly's trey put her side up 68-64, and even though Corpus Christi twice made it a one-possession game on layups from Dalesia Booth (eight points) and Emma Young (15 points) with 37 and 16 seconds remaining, respectively, the Wildcats maintained their edge thanks to four-consecutive free throws by Wright.
Wright's last free throws came with 13 seconds left in regulation. Booth then missed a layup with eight seconds left, and after
Alyssa Adams missed a pair of free throws, Evans missed the mark on a three-pointer at the buzzer.
Evans' missed free throws were just two of 12 missed by the Islanders, who shot 50 percent from the charity stripe (12-24), while the Wildcats made 16-19 (.842) in addition to six treys. ACU additionally shot 51.0 percent (25-49) from the field and held Corpus Christi to a .426 field-goal percentage.
ACU won the rebounding battle as well, 40-26.
The Wildcats are off Saturday and return home to Moody Coliseum a week from tonight with a 6 p.m. game vs. first-place Lamar. The Cardinals defeated Nicholls, 78-65, Wednesday night in Beaumont in improving to 15-4 (8-0 Southland).
