Abilene Christian (20-12, 9-7) vs. Northwestern State (16-15, 12-8)
Thursday, March 20 | 6 p.m. (CT)
Abilene, Texas | Moody Coliseum
Postseason WNIT - First Round
GAME LINKS
ABILENE - Abilene Christian women's basketball will play its first postseason tournament game in four years when it takes on Northwestern State in the Women's National Invitation Tournament on Thursday. Tipoff from Moody Coliseum is set for 6 p.m.
The winner of Thursday's matchup will take on Central Arkansas in the second round of the tournament at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Conway, Ark.
The Wildcats qualified for the Postseason WNIT after notching a 20-12 record with a 9-7 mark in Western Athletic Conference action, tying for fourth place in the league standings. It's the program's most wins, overall winning percentage and conference winning percentage since 2019-20's 24-5 campaign.
ACU is making its fifth trip to a postseason tournament in the team's Division I era and its first since reaching the Women's Basketball Invitational in 2021. The Wildcats first appeared in the WNIT in 2016 and returned in 2017, where they picked up their only postseason win in team history against Oklahoma State.
The Lady Demons have built a historic campaign of their own in reaching the postseason for the first time since 2015-16, which doubles as the last time they achieved a winning record in the regular season. Northwestern State is 6-4 in four previous trips to the WNIT, the last of which came in 1999. It reached the third round in three of those appearances.
Northwestern State touts a 16-15 record after a fifth-place finish in the Southland Conference that saw it go 12-8. The Lady Demons won three of four games to round out the regular season before a 1-1 showing in the conference tournament. They beat A&M-Corpus Christi, 66-63, before falling to Incarnate Word, 69-54.
The Wildcats and the Lady Demons competed alongside each other in the Southland from 2013-14 to 2020-21. ACU leads the series, 6-2, and has won the teams' last six matchups, with the most recent coming in the 2019-20 campaign.
ACU meets Northwestern State with the WAC's second-ranked field goal percentage at 43.2%, while the Lady Demons' 36.6% field goal defense ranks 20th in the nation. Their three-point defense is the best in the Southland and 21st in the country, holding opponents to a 27.3% clip.
The Wildcats' offense ranks third in the WAC in scoring 71.1 points per game, and it will receive a boost with the return of
Payton Hull. The sophomore guard returned to action in the WAC Tournament after missing the last 13 games of the regular season with an injury and hardly missed a beat. In 26 minutes, She scored 15 points with a team-high six rebounds and four assists in the loss to Utah Valley.
Hull, the 2023-24 WAC Freshman of the Year, averages 18.4 points per game to go with 2.9 assists and 2.0 steals. She'll complement strong guard play by
Bella Earle and
Emma Troxell, the latter of which scored a career-high 20 points against the Wolverines last week.
Earle, with 1,080 minutes played this season, is 12 away from moving into second place in ACU's Division I record books for minutes played in a season. With 442 points, the senior is 14 points shy of the third-most points in a season. She's currently tied for eighth place.
After combining for five points in the last two games of the regular season following an 11-game streak with 11 points or more,
Meredith Mayes responded with a 12-point effort versus Utah Valley. Averaging 3.3 offensive rebounds per game, the second-most in the conference, she is four away from tying for second-most in a season in program history.
Northwestern State won't make it easy, though, with the Southland's most rebounds per game at 41.3, good for 16th in the nation. Its rebound margin is +5.2, ranking second in the league.
While shooting just 30% from long range, the Lady Demons have set the program record for three-pointers in a season with 215. Mya Blake is the team's offensive leader in scoring a conference-best 18.2 points per game while shooting 42.1% overall and 36.3% from deep. Blake's 4.0 assists per game are second-most in the Southland.
Vernell Atamah averages 14.0 points at 40.9% while bringing down a team-best 6.9 boards per game. Atamah's scoring and rebounding each rank seventh in the league, and her 77.9% free throw clip is fifth.
Sharna Ayres scores 10.8 points per game and has combined with Blake to hit 135 three-pointers this season. On the glass, Jasmin Dixon averages 5.6 rebounds alongside 1.5 blocks per game that are third in the Southland.
Thursday's matchup can be streamed on ESPN+ as Andy Penney and Roman Raffaeli call the action. Local listeners can tune into 101.7 FM The Patriot with the Voice of the Wildcats,
Grant Boone, painting the picture.
