ABILENE – Abilene Christian took one more step toward a spot in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament with a dominating 75-42 win over Southern Utah on Thursday night.
With the win, ACU needs just one win or one Tarleton State loss in the final three games to seal a spot in the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. ACU gets its first shot at that win at 1 p.m. on Saturday when Utah Tech visits Moody Coliseum.
The Wildcats shot 47 percent from the field and limited the Thunderbirds to 27 percent.
"That's something we really worked on a lot this week," said ACU Head Coach
Julie Goodenough. "In our last game against Southern Utah, we gave up 82 points and defense just wasn't very good in that game. So, we worked a lot this week on defense and I'm really proud of our players for buying into the defensive game plan. The defense allowed us to force turnovers and get layups or shots in transition."
Bella Earle had a big night with 14 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.
Addison Martin added 14 points and
Payton Hull added 10.
"We always emphasize getting the ball in the paint," said Goodenough. "We like the inside out. We like to shoot the three-point shots the most but we scored over 40 points in the paint tonight. Our guards did a nice job reading the defense and getting layups in the paint. We got a lot of good looks in the paint."
ACU never trailed and led by 11 at the end of the first quarter and 37-23 at the half. A dominant third quarter gave the Cats a 47-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats scored the last 10 points of the third quarter and the first six of the fourth for a 16-0 run that put ACU ahead 63-29. The hosts would see the lead peak at 35 points on three occasions in the game's final seven minutes.
The Wildcats celebrate Senior Day on Saturday with
Clare Traeger and
Brooke Jessen playing in their final game at Moody Coliseum.
