ACU Falls in WAC Championship Game

Saturday, March 14

Las Vegas, Nev.

2:30 p.m. (CT)

Abilene Christian

23-10,13-5WAC

California Baptist

23-10,15-3WAC

Abilene Christian

California Baptist

Photo by: Luke White

3/14/2026 4:09:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Watch: Postgame Press Conference

The Wildcats could be picked for a postseason tournament.

By: Evan Nemec

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- The Abilene Christian women's basketball team reached a conference championship game for the first time since 2019, but could not overcome a sluggish start, losing to California Baptist 74-58 in the final of the 2026 Air Force Reserve WAC Basketball Tournament on Saturday afternoon.

ACU awaits the draws from the from the WBIT and WNIT to see if it has been selected for a postseason tournament. Details on matchups will be released when ACU is notified.

The Wildcats, who earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament, breezed past UT Arlington in Friday's semifinal. However, a slow start hurt their chances against top-seeded CBU. ACU was held to just six points in the first quarter, tying a season-low and marking just the fourth time this season the Cats have scored fewer than 10 points in any quarter.

Three-pointers from Erin Woodson and Breanna Davis on consecutive trips down the floor cut the deficit to six, but the Lancers pushed it to a 39-27 edge at halftime. ACU made uncharacteristic errors with CBU scoring 11 points off 11 turnovers.

In the second half, the Wildcats could not trim the deficit lower than 11 points. CBU limited ACU to just 31% shooting from the field.

"Congratulations to Cal Baptist. They had a terrific game today," ACU head coach Julie Goodenough said. "We just had some good battles against them. We were hoping for another good battle today, but I thought they played brilliantly and it just was not our day today -- not on offense or defense.

"We weren't sharing the ball very well the whole first quarter, dug ourselves a hole and, and it was really tough. We came back after halftime, the 3rd quarter, kind of got back into it, but you just can't dig a hole against a good team like Cal Baptist."

ACU earned its 23rd win on Friday which is the most the program has won since going 24-5 in the 2019-20 season.

"It's been so fun," said Erin Woodson. "We love each other. We're all best friends on the court, off the court. So just being able to like share this whole season with each other has just been so much fun and going through adversity with injuries and just different things being thrown at us, I think we just got closer through it and handled it very well."

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

ALL-TOURNAMENT

Erin Woodson and Payton Hull were selected to the WAC's All-Tournament team for their performances on Friday and Saturday.

STAT PACK

Emma Troxell notched a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Erin Woodson added 16 points, and also grabbed eight boards. Payton Hull scored 10.
CBU outscored ACU in points off turnovers 19-2, and dominated the paint with a 44-12 edge.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Head Coach Julie Goodenough on how players' adjustments to the lineup made her proud...
"Emma Troxel was our starting 4 player. [Meredith Mayes] goes down, she becomes our starting 5, and obviously she's undersized against everybody in our league. Natalia Chavez was one of the best six-men in the WAC, and she was thrust into the starting lineup and had some really big games. Then we lose Meredith's backup and so we ask, Erin Woodson to be a backup post player. Erin is our starting 2 and she plays the 4. The first day we started working on that, I was like, 'Erin, I'm gonna keep my playbook really short.' She's like, 'Call anything.' I called whatever I wanted to and she knew exactly what the 4 was supposed to do.

"Then Jazmyn Stone, she has played some shooting guard and point guard and has just been unbelievably selfless. The way the players are like, 'You need me to do what? OK, yes, I can do that.' There's been no pushback whatsoever. I've just been proud of the way they've handled all of that.

"I love being the head coach at Abilene Christian and we're able to recruit really high-character women and you really see that come out in moments that we go through and see that come out on the court as well."