by NATCHITOCHES, La. – Back-to-back 3-pointers by juniors Dominique Golightly (Kiowa Tribe) and Breanna Wright within a 34 second window in the third quarter keyed a game-changing 11-0 run that sent the Abilene Christian women’s basketball team to a 72-63 win over Nautica Grant and Northwestern State Saturday afternoon at Prather Coliseum.
The win gave ACU a 2-1 record on its season-long, three-game Southland Conference road trip, and lifted its season and league marks to 12-5 and 5-1. The Lady Demons, meanwhile, fell to 6-10 overall and 1-4 vs. the conference despite receiving 24 points from Grant on 7-9 shooting from 3-point range.
One of Grant’s treys came at the 4:28 mark of the third quarter, and trimmed ACU’s lead (which was as many as 14 points earlier in the game) all the way down to six at 46-40. But the Wildcats responded in their typical cool fashion, first getting a layup from sophomore Alyssa Adams (eight bench points) followed by the two killer 3-pointers from Golightly (19 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists) and Wright (9 points, 6 assists).
Golightly and Wright then knocked down a couple of free throws as the defense held the home team scoreless for the better part of five minutes in grabbing a 57-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Northwestern State shot incredibly well in the last stanza (60 percent, 9-15), but the Wildcats never let the Lady Demons take off on any kind of prolonged scoring run. Golightly and Lexie Ducat (17 points, 6 rebounds) each answered a Grant 3-pointer with a layup, and with just about two minutes remaining this same ACU duo sank consecutive baskets to put the Wildcats up 68-55.
Grant would hit one more three to make it a 10-point game at 68-58 and a 3-point play from RaVon Nero cut ACU’s advantage to single digits (70-61) with 26 seconds remaining, but Ducat hit another jumper in between and Wright put the game on ice with her two free throws coming with nine seconds left in regulation.
ACU led 38-28 at halftime thanks to a 53.8 shooting percentage, four 3-pointers, six free throws and a +7 rebounding margin. The Wildcats led by as many as 16 points (36-22) at the 2:47 mark of the second quarter following a pair of Ducat free throws, but the home team finished the half on a 6-0 run and nearly made it an eight-point game at 38-30 but Sami Thomas’ attempted layup at the buzzer was ruled no good following an officials’ replay review.
Golightly got her team rolling early with three consecutive 3-pointers, and after 10 minutes the Wildcats were up 21-13. They then started the second quarter on a 9-4 run capped by a trey from Makaya Mabry ((6 points, 7 rebounds), and Ducat later scored four points during an 8-1 run that lasted close to three minutes.
