DAYTON, Ohio – First road trip? Check. The ACU women's basketball team stayed perfect on the young season with a convincing win on the road at the Horizon League's Wright State University, 83-64. The Wildcats (3-0) never trailed, continued to hit from the outside, and locked down the Raiders defensively in an all-around team victory at the Nutter Center Friday night. Altogether, four players finished in double figures and all nine players scored in the game for head coach
Julie Goodenough's team.
The Significance
- It was the first meeting between the two schools, who mirror one another in a few ways. Both are defending conference tournament champions, both were picked to win their respective leagues this year, and both made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Both teams came in ranked in the mid-major poll (Wright State – 16, ACU – 21) as well. ACU put together a dominant performance from start-to-finish with a convincing win on the road against a tournament team, which will undoubtedly help the team down the road.
Turning Points
- After ACU led 15-12 with 1:22 left in the first quarter, they took off. The Wildcats went on a 15-0 run that ran to the 7:02 mark of the second frame. The key stretch included four triples from
Breanna Wright,
Madi Miller,
Makayla Mabry, and
Dominique Golightly. ACU eventually pushed the halftime lead to 43-27, and never looked back.
- Wright State went on a 7-0 run to open the second half. The Raiders could have continued that momentum to get themselves back in the game, but the Wildcats had other plans. Leading just 43-34 at that time, ACU weathered the early storm and pushed the lead back with Golightly free throws and a Miller three-pointer. ACU led 62-44 at the end of the third, and the game was never close again.
Key Plays
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Anna McLeod's three-pointer to get the scoring started gave ACU its first lead. There would be no lead changes in the contest. The Wildcats never looked back. Every time Wright State tried to get back in it, ACU answered.
- Golightly's first points of the night came at the free throw line. The senior gave ACU a 10-4 lead in the first quarter at the time, and she was off and running. The Chickasha, Okla. native added a layup moments later and would go on to score a season-best 16 points.
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Madi Miller's three-pointer at the 2:47 mark of the second quarter pushed the lead to 36-21. The sophomore would go on to have a career night with 20 points.
- Senior
Lexie Ducat played a big role, and had a key layup at the 2:06 mark of the third quarter on brilliant passing in the paint. Ducat battle foul trouble, but was big defensively as well, controlling the paint against the posts of Wright State.
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Anna McLeod, who was in foul trouble along with Ducat and played just 17 minutes, hit a couple of big free throws in the fourth quarter, then hit the dagger three-pointer with 2:40 left to put the game away for good, 73-57.
Stat Pack
- Miller's 20 points led all scorers, setting a new career high in the process. The Wylie, Texas native went 5-of-8 from the floor including 3-of-5 from distance, and if not as important or more importantly, connected on all seven foul shots.
- Wright set a new season-high with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Her eight assists were just one shy of Wright State's team assist total of nine.
- Golightly scored 16 and was big-time from the foul line at 8-of-11, but also led the way with nine rebounds.
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Makayla Mabry's eight rebounds loomed large defensively.
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Alyssa Adams came in off the bench and had seven huge rebounds to go along with a pair of steals.
- ACU as a team shot 45.8%, but defensively held Wright State to 28.1% from the floor (25-89). The Raiders did have 54 rebounds (31 offensive), but the Wildcats battled defensively and continued to get stops inside.
- The 'Cats finished 27-of-37 from the foul line; the 27 free throws made are the most in a game since their 28 makes against Lamar in the Southland Conference Tournament semifinal.
The "Good"-ie Bag of Quotes
On the great start…
"I credit our starters. We got off to a great start in the game and we were able to give ourselves a cushion. We played really tough too. We got pushed around, but we always got up. Our depth was huge. We had players in foul trouble, but we had some great individual performances to get us the win."
On fighting back when Wright State made a run…
"They took advantage of our weakness on the glass, but we never gave in.
Madi Miller was huge off the bench and filled in when our starters had to go out.
Alyssa Adams was so big time in that game too. I love how we fought and battled in a tough environment. It's a great win for our team. They made it tough, but we never gave in."
Up Next
- The team has a couple days off before returning to Moody Coliseum to battle the Yellow Jackets of Howard Payne. The tipoff on Tuesday, Nov. 19 will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Abilene.
