PHOENIX - Abilene Christian women's basketball will close out the regular season with arguably its greatest challenge of the year against Grand Canyon, the Western Athletic Conference regular season champion and winner of 26 games in a row. The Wildcats meet the Lopes at Global Credit Union Arena at GCU at 3 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+.
ACU moved into a three-way tie with UT Arlington and California Baptist for third place in the conference standings after Thursday's 71-62 win at Utah Valley. Grand Canyon has the No. 1 seed in next week's WAC Tournament on lock, while the Wildcats could earn anywhere between a No. 2 and a No. 4 seed.
If ACU beats Grand Canyon and Tarleton State, currently in second in the conference, falls to Utah Valley, the Wildcats would be the No. 2 seed. Should both ACU and Tarleton State win, the Wildcats will be No. 3. If ACU loses, it will be the No. 4 seed due to having the tiebreaker over the loser between UT Arlington and California Baptist.
The Wildcats have won seven of their last eight games with a 3-1 mark on the road. Their lone loss came by three points at Southern Utah. The Lopes boast a 6-1 all-time series lead over the Wildcats, with ACU's win coming during the 2015-16 campaign.
With the nation's longest winning streak, Grand Canyon aims to become the third WAC program since 2010-11 to launch an undefeated regular season. The Lopes are 18-0 in Phoenix, boasting the second-most home victories in the country.
The Wildcats and the Lopes previously met on Jan. 16 at Moody Coliseum, when Grand Canyon outscored ACU 49-22 in the second half for an 81-67 victory. The Wildcats saw a pair of starters suffer season-ending injuries in the loss, with both
Payton Hull and
Mia Rivers missing the remainder of the year. Hull, the reigning WAC Freshman of the Year, was leading the team in scoring with 18.6 points per game.
ACU earned a 26-point, eight-rebound effort from
Bella Earle in the matchup, tying her career high in scoring. She matched that total with a double-double against Utah Valley, marking her second game in a row with 22 points or more. Earle is the WAC's sixth-leading scorer in conference games at 14.3 points, while her 7.9 rebounds are good for third.
Erin Woodson has also remained hot over the past week, scoring 15 points in each of her last two games. She added a career-high six assists versus UT Arlington on March 1. Woodson's 1.8 three-pointers per conference game are tied for ninth in the WAC.
Emma Troxell remains a key piece of the Wildcats' offense with 11.7 points per conference game to rank 18th, while her 4.9 boards are 20th. After playing 20.5 minutes per game as a freshman, she's averaged 33.8 minutes per WAC matchup. That's fourth-most in the league, with Earle leading the stat with 38.3 minutes per contest.
ACU will be tasked with handling a Grand Canyon team that ranks in the top three in the conference in nearly every major statistic. The Lopes have the best offense and defense at 77.8 and 56.9 points per game, respectively, while their 49.3% field goal percentage is third in the nation.
Grand Canyon carries the WAC's top offense and defense from deep, knocking down 38.2% of its three-pointers, the seventh-best clip in the country, while holding opponents to a 27.4% mark.
Like the Wildcats' matchup with the Wolverines, both of Saturday's squads have been adept at causing havoc on the defensive end. The Lopes are in the nation's top 11 with 13.1 steals and 22.2 forced turnovers per game, while ACU is in the top 30 behind 11.0 steals and 21.8 forced turnovers.
Callie Cooper and Tiarra Brown are first and second in WAC steals, respectively, with Earle not far behind at third. Trinity San Antonio is 16th in the country with 2.86 steals per game over the entire season, and she has 19 in her last four games.
Alyssa Durazo-Frescas is the second-best three-point shooter in the nation, hitting 47% of her shots to lead the country in three-pointers per game with 4.0. Her teammate, Laura Erikstrup, has the conference's best field goal percentage at 59.0%.
