ACUWBB draws No. 1 Baylor for NCAA First Round

NCAA Women's Championship Bracket

ABILENE – To be the best, you've got to beat the best and the Wildcats of Abilene Christian basketball will begin their first NCAA Championship Tournament run Saturday against the nation's undisputed No. 1 team from Baylor.

"This is really a best-case scenario for Wildcat fans," said head coach Julie Goodenough. "Here we are with our first experience in the NCAAs and we can have our fans from all over Texas come and cheer us on against the Lady Bears."

The 1 / 16 game will air on ESPN2 with tip off set for 30 minutes after the conclusion of No. 8 Cal vs. No. 9. All four schools along with 12 other teams are part of the Greensboro Regional.

The Big 12 Champion Bears come into Saturday's game with a 31-1 overall record and all 32 first-place votes in Monday's USA Today Sports Women's Basketball Coaches Poll. Goodenough is the Southland Conference representative on this year's voting panel, which has kept Baylor atop the poll for eight consecutive weeks.

"They absolutely dominated the Big 12 Conference, and so I kept them on top every week," said Goodenough. "They are a phenomenal team with athletic guards, shooters and drivers. They have a well-balanced scoring threat led by two of the best inside players in the NCAA – Lauren Cox and Kalani Brown."

The Bears also top the AP poll with 28 first-place votes and the most recent top-16 committee ranking from March 3. However, the latest RPI from Sunday has them second behind Notre Dame (30-3).

Baylor's lone loss was at No. 11 Stanford, 68-63, on Dec. 15. Since then the Bears have won 23 straight games, including six contests against nationally-ranked opposition. They beat No. 1 UConn during this stretch in addition to ranked Big 12 schools from Iowa State and Texas. Baylor started the year with wins over No. 23 Arizona State and No. 18 South Carolina.

"Under Kim's (Mulkey) leadership, the Bears will be a top-five team in the country year-in and year-out," said Goodenough. "They are a dominant force, winning eight of the last nine Big 12 Tournaments and nine straight regular-season championships."

ACU is 23-9 overall and has won nine of its last 10 games in capturing the Southland Conference Tournament Championship in only its second appearance.

The Wildcats' run started with a 82-54 win over eighth-seeded Central Arkansas. They then upset 20th-ranked mid-major and top-seeded Lamar, 88-79 in the semifinals, and hung on to beat sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Sunday afternoon, 88-79, to become the seventh current team to represent the Southland Conference in the NCAA Tournament.

Baylor has two NCAA Tournament wins in the first round over Southland Conference schools in the last decade. The Lady Bears beat 15th-seeded UTSA, 87-82 in OT of the 2009 Tournament, and crushed Northwestern State in 2015, 77-36.

The Wildcats trail their all-time series with the Bears, 2-0. ACU lost a 61-34 game to Baylor during the 1972-73 season, and again 79-34 early in the 2016-17 season when the Wildcats were led by their Big Four of Lizzy and Suzzy Dimba, Alexis Mason and Sydney Shelstead. That Wildcat team went on to win its second consecutive Southland Conference regular-season title and capture a 66-56 win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater for the first round of the WNIT.

Schedule

ACUWBB draws No. 1 Baylor for NCAA First Round

Players Mentioned

Suzzy Dimba

Alexis Mason

Sydney Shelstead

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