ABILENE, Texas – Kicking off their season, Abilene Christian dominated the University of the Southwest (New Mexico) 95-38.
"We're just really excited for the season to start, excited to play at home in front of our home crowd," head coach Julie Goodenough said. "We wanted to make a good first impression. We wanted our fans to be proud of the way we played."
ACU finished the game shooting 46 percent from the field with 47 rebounds. Meanwhile, USW shot 27 percent from the field with 30 rebounds.
The Wildcats had 11 active members tonight– all of which were able to find their way to the basket. Leading the Cats, Payton Hull, sophomore guard, had 23 points while shooting 54 percent from the field and adding four rebounds.
"Coach always says 'team first wins' and I think we showed that tonight. I had 23 points, but I could not have done that without my teammates making good passes," Hull said.
Three other Wildcats finished the evening in double-digits. Junior Natalia Chavez and sophomore Emma Troxell both finished with 16 points and five rebounds. Chavez shot 55 percent from the field and Troxell shot 46 percent. Senior Bella Earle had 18 points at the end of the night, shooting 58 percent from the field with seven rebounds.
The Wildcats also had a record-breaking night. Allowing only three points in the second quarter, ACU sets a program record with the lowest amount of points allowed in a single quarter.
"We won the rebounding battle, but we did not always block out. So that's going to be something consistent [to improve on]– that we're not just relying on our size to get rebounds," Goodenough said. "We've got to be more physical and work for rebounds every time a shot goes up."
ACU takes on Florida International in Miami on Friday at 6 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Live Stats will also be available.
Along with following the game on ESPN+, fans can also follow the program on X, Instagram, Facebook and acusports.com.
#RowTheBoat #GoWildcats
