ABILENE, Texas — The Wildcats returned to Moody Coliseum for the second straight game on Saturday, ultimately fell to the North Texas Mean Green, 60-71.
"Our team really battled back and forth with a really good North Texas team, especially when we had it close a couple times," head coach Julie Goodenough said. "We got some fighters, we got some gritty players on our team. Nobody is making excuses. Nobody's throwing in the towel or anything like that. And so that's our expectation for them to come back and, you know, fight to protect our home court, but it did not turn out in our favor today."
The Wildcats started the game strong in the first quarter shooting 35.3 from the field and 22 percent from the 3-point line. ACU also went on a 9-0 run in a minute and a half to help take a 14–11 lead to end the first quarter.
The Mean Green struck back in the second quarter. North Texas went on a 12-0 run in the second quarter while shooting 66.7 percent from the field to take back the lead in the second. The Wildcats struggled shooting, finishing the second ten minutes shooting 25 percent from the field and 11 percent from the 3-point line to allow UNT to take a 38-26 lead heading into halftime.
"The second quarter really got us," Goodenough said. "We were out of sync defensively, gave them a lot of good looks, and then offensively again, just didn't shoot the ball very well. We shot the ball 25 percent in the second quarter. If your defense is not getting stops and you're not making shots, you're going to have quarters like that. We've got to figure out how to remedy it."
In the third quarter, UNT initially started the quarter on a short run, but ACU went on a 7-0 run over two minutes to cut UNT's lead to seven points. Mean Green responded with a 5-0 run to bring their lead back to 12 points, with ACU following soon after with a 5-0 spurt of their own. Heading into the fourth quarter, UNT held a 49-40 lead.
In the fourth quarter, ACU went on a 6-0 in 30 seconds to cut the lead to three points. But with under five minutes left, UNT went on an 11-0 run to grow the lead to 11, and the Wildcats could not make their way back into the game. The Mean Green finished the quarter shooting 57 percent while ACU only shot 42 percent, allowing them to take the 71-60 win.
The Wildcats finished the game shooting 34.8 percent from the field and 22.9 percent from the 3-point line. Meanwhile, the Mean Green finished shooting 53.1 percent from the field and 30 percent from the 3-point line. Despite the loss, ACU won the rebounding battle, 39-35, as well as won the turnover battle, causing 24 turnovers while ACU had 22.
"Looking at the stats, I see some really good things that pop up," Goodenough said. The number of turnovers that we forced, and the number of offensive rebounds we had, outrebounding this team is a big deal. We're just having a hard time scoring at home this week, hopefully, it was just this week we get it out of our system."
Leading the Wildcats in scoring was sophomore Payton Hull, who finished the game with 21 points while also adding two assists. Bella Earle had her first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Earle also added five assists and two steals.
"There were just too many little mistakes we made," Payton Hull said. "Once we fix that, we'll be very solid. Our ability to just see the floor when we weren't knocking shots helped keep us in the game. All of us were getting in the paint. We had a lot of paint balls we were able to just finish. But, I think there are a lot of things we need to work on."
Up next, ACU heads back on the road on Tuesday for a trip to Lubbock, Texas. The Wildcats had north for their biggest test in nonconference play, a matchup with the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The game in Lubbock will be the two programs' fifth matchup in ACU's Div. I history, with the Red Raiders hosting a 3-1 record during that time.
Fans who can't make it to Lubbock can stream or listen to the game live on ESPN+. Fans can also keep up with the 'Cats by following the team on X, Instagram, Facebook and acusports.com.
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