by ABILENE – A Sierra Allen buzzer-beater jumper to end the third quarter followed by three straight 3-pointers to begin the fourth sealed an 83-65 Abilene Christian women’s basketball victory over Sam Houston State Saturday at Moody Coliseum.
The win lifted ACU’s overall and Southland Conference records to 8-4 and 2-0, while Sam Houston State fell to 3-7 and 0-1.
The Wildcats led by as many as 22 points in the first half, but a big third quarter offensively for the Bearkats (25 points) brought them within 13 points at the 30-second mark of the third quarter. But on the Wildcats’ final possession, sophomore guard Breanna Wright (17 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds) dumped a pass from the base line to the free-throw area from where Allen (7 points, 5 rebounds) sank one of her three field goals.
That bucket put ACU ahead 61-46 entering the final quarter and the Wildcats exploded out of the gate, hitting their first three 3-point attempts within a span of 64 seconds. Sara Williamson (19 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds) was assisted by Golightly on the first trey, and then she assisted on the next two triples hit by Wright and Golightly.
Golightly, who had a 14-point / 12-rebound double-double Thursday vs. New Orleans, scored all 10 of her points in the fourth quarter vs. the Bearkats, connecting on her final three 3-point tries after an 0-7 start. She also was credited with five rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.
ACU shot 47.4 percent for the game (27-57) with 14 of its field goals coming from beyond the 3-point arc. The Wildcats additionally did well from the charity stripe, making 15-of-19 attempts (.789).
By comparison, Sam Houston shot just 34.4 percent (22-64) as the Bearkats whiffed on 10 of 14 long-distance tries. They only scored nine points in the first quarter and had 21 at the half before connecting on 50 percent of their 14 shots (plus 10 free throws) in the third quarter.
Sam Houston continued to shoot at a 50 percent (8-16) clip in the fourth quarter but only went to the foul line once in the final 10 minutes.
The Bearkats were led in scoring by Ashleigh Cooper with 11 points followed by Jenniffer Oramas and Lydia Baxter with 10. Cooper also was Sam Houston’s leading rebounder with six boards, but ACU easily won the rebounding battle, 45-31.
Both teams got off to slow offensive starts with the score sitting at 5-4 in ACU’s favor for the better part of four minutes. But after the Bearkats went back ahead 6-5 on a Baxter jumper, the Wildcats took off on a 9-0 run to make it a 14-6 contest. Akarian Morgan then hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the visitors to make it 14-9 at the end of the first quarter.
ACU dominated all aspects of the second quarter, outscoring the Bearkats, 29-12. Wright scored 10 points during this quarter and was a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line to go along with two rebounds and three assists.
Sam Houston didn’t make their first field goal of the second quarter until the 5:43 mark, and soon afterward the Wildcats hit back-to-back treys by Josie Larson (9 points) and Makayla Mabry (6 points) to spark a 14-0 run over three minutes that made it a 37-15 game at the 1:34 mark.
The Bearkats scored the next couple points to cut ACU’s lead to 18 points, but Larson answered with another trey to send the Wildcats into halftime with a 43-21 lead.
