ABILENE – Abilene Christian returns to the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball season on Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest at Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
ACU is 5-6 after a 66-49 loss at the hands of Louisiana Tech on Dec. 30. ACU is 1-1 in the WAC.
UTRGV comes in at 1-10 overall and 0-2 in the league.
ACU Storylines
Bounce Back: ACU will be looking to bounce back after its worst offensive output last game.
Addison Martin had 16 points and
Gracy Wernli came off the bench for 11 points.
Bella Earle and
Clare Traeger had 11 rebounds apiece in the loss.
Perimeter Game: ACU is 13th in the NCAA with 9.3 three-pointers made per game and ninth in the nation with 28.4 attempts per game. Freshman
Payton Hull leads the WAC at 41.2 percent from three-point range and is 18th nationally with three three-pointers per game.
Getting the Boards: The Wildcats are the top rebounding team in the WAC with a 5.8 rebounding margin.
Bella Earle leads that effort for ACU with 7.9 rebounds per game. The Cats also are 39th nationally with 14.7 offensive rebounds per game.
Addison Martin averages 2.7 and Earle gets 2.5 rebounds on the offensive end per game.
The Tri-Dubs:
Bella Earle had back-to-back triple-doubles earlier this season against Navy and Texas-Arlington. She is tied for the national lead with two triple-doubles and is the only player to get them in consecutive games.
Newcomer: Freshman
Payton Hull is a three-time Western Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Week and leads the league in newcomer honors this season. Hull had back-to-back 30-point outings earlier this season.
Fab Four: ACU has four players averaging double figures in the scoring column, led by
Payton Hull at 15.3.
Bella Earle averages 12.2, followed by
Addison Martin at 11.5 and
Aspen Thornton at 10.8.
History: ACU lost at UTRGV last season, 75-71.
Addison Martin had 25 points and
Aspen Thornton added 15 for ACU.
Scouting UTRGV
- Rio Grande Valley stopped a season-long 10-game losing streak with a 66-58 win over Sam Houston State on Dec. 30.
- Iyana Dorsey leads UTRGV with 16.1 points per game. She had a run of three 20-point games earlier this season against Texas State, Incarnate Word and Oral Roberts.
- Kade Hackerott is coming off of her best outing, scoring 19 points and getting 13 rebounds against Sam Houston.
- Hackerott averages 10.8 rebounds and leads the WAC with 8.7 defensive rebounds per game.
- The Vaqueros are 35th nationally with a 77.0 free throw percentage. Iyana Dorsey is 56th in the nation, shooting 85.7 percent from the charity stripe.
