ABILENE – Winners of four-straight Southland Conference games, Abilene Christian is back on the road Saturday for a 2 p.m. game vs. Central Arkansas at the Farris Center. The Wildcats defeated the Sugar Bears, 77-70, earlier this season at Moody Coliseum to break a four-game series losing streak.
Saturday's game will have real-time stats and web stream courtesy of
UCASports.com. Wildcat fans also can listen to
Grant Boone's call of the game on
98.1 FM – The Ticket.
ACU Wednesday night improved to 18-8 overall and 11-4 vs. the Southland Conference after handing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13-13, 7-8 Southland) a 72-55 defeat to complete the season series sweep. The Wildcats drained 10 3-pointers as part of a .553 field-goal shooting percentage and posted a an impressive +9.0 rebounding margin as junior
Dominique Golightly recorded game highs in both points (17) and rebounds (8).
Lexie Ducat (12) and
Makayla Mabry (10) also reached double figures for the Wildcats, while
Breanna Wright dished out eight of the team's 21 assists (26 field goals) and
Sara Williamson scored seven points on 3-of-4 shooting. Williamson's season field goal percentage is an outstanding .621.
The victory kept the Wildcats tied for third place in the standings with Nicholls, which also has won its last four games since losing to the Wildcats, 76-66, back on Feb. 13 at Hardin-Simmons University. ACU and the Colonels are 3.0 to 3.5 games behind conference leaders Lamar (15-1) and Stephen F. Austin (14-1), which will face one another a second time in Beaumont this Saturday at 3 p.m. SFA won the first game vs. the Cardinals, 70-58, on Feb. 9.
Sam Houston State, which is in the mix for a first-round tournament bye at 10-6, is idle this coming Saturday but will be at UCA and SFA the following Wednesday (March 6) and Saturday (March 9).
The rest of the pack, including Central Arkansas (11-14, 6-9 Southland) is 4.0 games or more behind the Wildcats and Colonels with three dates left on the regular-season calendar. The Sugar Bears currently occupy the eighth and final seed of the postseason tournament, but are a full 2.0 games up on four teams all tied with 4-11 records: McNeese, Incarnate Word, Southeastern La., and Northwestern St.
And while UCA can't catch any of the teams hoping to clinch a tournament bye, it can still leapfrog Corpus Christi and New Orleans (11-14, 7-9) for the sixth seed.
The Sugar Bears come into their homestand on a two-game losing streak vs. Nicholls (62-58) and SFA (79-43), but still claim the 29th-ranked scoring defense that's averaging 57.0 points allowed per game. They also are No. 2 in the Southland in fewest turnovers with 405, and have limited opposing offenses to a .297 3-point field goal percentage that's third best in the conference.
ACU made 4-of-14 3-pointers in its previous meeting with the Sugar Bears, but made up for its lack of perimeter shooting with 44 points in the paint. Williamson recorded a 22-point / 10-assist double-double on 8-13 shooting, and was only three rebounds shy of attaining the coveted triple double. Mabry (14), Ducat (14) and Golightly (12) also scored in double figures on a combined 18-29 shooting (.621) as ACU finished with a .538 field-goal percentage.
Kamry Orr is UCA's go-to player. She is ranked among the league's top-10 players in seven categories, including assists per game (3.5), free-throw percentage (.790), points per game (15.5) and steals per game (2.36).
