You could’ve been happier with the results. But as a fan of women’s basketball at Abilene Christian University, you couldn’t have been more proud of the effort.
ACU lost its opening round game of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament to The University of Texas at El Paso Thursday, March 17, at the Don Haskins Center, 66-62. It ended an historic run that saw the Wildcats:
• Win 14 straight games (nine of which were on the road), the program’s longest streak since 1998;
• Hand three teams that each won at least 20 games (two of whom went to the NCAA Tournament) their first home losses of the season;
• Climb as high as 12th in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), an absurdly lofty number for a team in a small-school conference;
• Defeat the four Southland Conference teams they hadn’t beaten in their first two years in the league – all by a double-digit margin and an average of 19 points;
• Endure the loss of leading rebounder Lizzy Dimba to a leg injury and still win their final six games of the regular season;
• Go 17-1 in conference, the best winning percentage by a Southland champion since 2007 and the first to win 17 league games since 2003;
• Win every game at Moody Coliseum, one of only 15 teams (out of 349 in Division I) to boast a perfect home record;
• Finish the season 26-4, tied for the fourth most in program history;
• And earn a gym bag full of postseason awards from the Southland Conference including Coach of the Year (Julie Goodenough) and Player of the Year (Alexis Mason).
Alas, ACU had hoped this historic season wouldn’t be history so soon.
After clinching at least a tie for first place in the Southland Conference with a win over the University of the Incarnate Word on March 2, ACU knew it would get the regular season champ’s automatic bid to the WNIT. (Three days later, Goodenough’s team claimed sole possession of the league title by knocking off Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. “This was one time,” the coach joked, “that I think it’s OK to be greedy.”)
The WNIT couldn’t fill its field until seeing which teams had been selected for the NCAA Tournament, which itself had to let the various conference tournaments play out. The Wildcats – ineligible for the conference and NCAA tournaments during this four-year transition to Division I – were left only to rest, recover and practice in the nearly two-week interim.
In this case, good things didn’t come to those who waited. On Monday, March 14, at a gathering of more than 100 family, friends and fans, the players and coaches learned their first round game would be on the road against UTEP – the regular-season champions from Conference USA and considered by many to be the best of the 64 competing institutions.
Unlike the NCAA Tournament, which seeds its teams according to regular season resume, the WNIT bases its brackets primarily on proximity in an attempt to minimize travel costs – all of which is borne by the participants. That explains why ACU, which entered the tournament with an RPI of 76 – the 15th best in the field – drew the team with the highest RPI in UTEP, simply because it’s closest to El Paso. In fact, none of the 32 first-round matchups had a better combined RPI than ACU-UTEP.
So if you tried to apply the NCAA Tournament’s seeding process, which relies heavily on RPI, to the WNIT, UTEP would’ve likely been a No. 1 seed and ACU around a No. 4. That means those two teams, had they won their first two games, wouldn’t have met until the third round instead of the first.
But again, the WNIT isn’t the NCAA Tournament. And to Goodenough’s credit, I never once heard her say anything critical – publicly or privately – about drawing the short straw. On the contrary, she billed it as an opportunity to knock off a team that two years prior reached the WNIT championship game.
By the time the game tipped off on March 17 in front of 5,000 screaming denizens of the Don Haskins Center – where the Miners were a perfect 16-0 – the Wildcats hadn’t played in 12 days. And early on, it showed. Three turnovers in the first 100 seconds put ACU in a hole from which it wouldn’t crawl out of for three quarters.
And yet, despite making just 3 of 13 shots in the first period and 5 of 29 in the first half, ACU’s solid defense and a season-long ability to get to the free throw line (10 for 14) limited the damage to a seven-point deficit at the end of each of the first two quarters.
ACU seemed to be playing uphill the entire game. Shots that had fallen all season kept rolling off the rim, albeit at times influenced by UTEP’s suffocating defensive pressure. But as if they’d pilfered the Miners’ pickaxe, the Wildcats began chipping away, led by Suzzy Dimba’s game-high 17 points and 15 rebounds; 14 and 11 of which came in the second half. And when Mason drained a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the third, ACU had clawed from nine back to within 43-41 going into the fourth.
The intensity of a game between two good teams can be significant any time of year. In March, it’s madness. And it can rub off on everyone in the building, on the court and on the air. ACU’s late third-quarter momentum was gone in 60 seconds. The first minute of the fourth included three Wildcat turnovers, three Miner buckets and what I described on the radio broadcast in graphic detail and in full throat as the single worst call I’ve ever witnessed.
With ACU down four and on its end of the court, Mason chased down a loose ball 28 feet from the basket and within just a few feet of where I sat courtside calling the game. When she came to a stop in possession of the ball, a UTEP defender came flying up from behind and went sprawling over her in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid making contact.
A whistle blew. Foul on Mason. The same one who’d arrived at the ball first and the one who – had there even been enough of a collision to merit a foul call – was the immovable object, not the irresistible force. (Goodenough and the few hundred ACU fans behind the bench didn’t even protest at first, perhaps stunned by the inaccuracy of the decision or assuming the official was confused and meant to call a foul on the opposing player.) UTEP scored 15 seconds later and again 16 seconds after that to take a 49-41 lead.
Don’t misinterpret: that call may have been why I lost my mind but isn’t why ACU lost the game. And as I pointed out repeatedly on the broadcast, the Miners thought they were getting the shaft given that UTEP was called for more fouls (28 to 20) than ACU. The point is, officials are human. Most of them anyway. I’m only blowing the whistle on that particular blown call to illuminate how magnified every moment is this time of year.
Somehow, the Wildcats kept their composure, adhering to Goodenough’s go-to mantra: Control the controllables. Over the ensuing three minutes, 39 seconds, ACU controlled the game, scoring 11 straight points to go up 52-49. The basket that gave the Wildcats their first lead was in some ways symbolic of the struggle: Mason, harried and harassed all night, hoisted an attempt – almost shot put style – that hit the brace attaching the rim to the backboard and fell in.
But UTEP responded with a 10-3 run of its own to go back in front with a minute to go, 59-55. And after hitting just six of their first 18 free throw attempts, the Miners made seven of their last eight in the final 55 seconds to seal a hard-fought, four-point win.
For all of the wild momentum swings, the game ultimately played out according to form. UTEP was 14th in the nation this season in forcing turnovers and induced 18 of them from ACU, including 10 in the fourth quarter alone. The Wildcats, as they’d done all year, lived at the line, earning 37 free throw attempts. Of the 349 Division I teams, no one attempted more free throws per game than ACU; and no team was called for more personal fouls than UTEP. Those are numbers that scream even louder than the Miners’ fans.
Before the game, I was optimistic the Wildcats could win the game but not as much (shame on me) that they could take the entire tournament. But after seeing UTEP go on to reach the WNIT quarterfinals before a narrow loss to the University of Oregon, I’m inclined to believe ACU could’ve beaten any team in its way.
After the game, Goodenough had no complaints, just kudos to her team for persevering through a final 40 minutes of a memorable nine-month marathon dating back to those first summer workouts.
Solomon warned in Proverbs 16 that pride precedes a fall. As ACU women’s hoops fans, we now know it comes afterward, too.
