by ABILENE — Sierra Allen and Dominique Golightly (Kiowa Tribe) each recorded double-doubles Saturday afternoon as the ACU Wildcats held off a pesky Southeastern Louisiana squad for an 86-80 win at Moody Coliseum.
The win keeps the Wildcats perfect in Southland Conference as they improve to 4-0 in league play as they pursue a third straight regular season league championship. At 10-4 overall, the Wildcats join Central Arkansas and Stephen F. Austin as the only 10-win teams in the league. And thanks to UCA’s home win over Lamar earlier in the day, the Wildcat and Sugar Bears are tied atop the league standings at 4-0.
The Lions, meanwhile, are now 1-13 overall and 0-3 in the league. The Wildcats had trouble containing Southeastern senior guard Taylin Underwood, who scored a game-high 32 points on 10 of 19 shooting, including 6 of 11 from 3-point range. She scored 21 of her total in the first half as Southeastern was able to stay in the game, trailing just 39-37 at halftime.
The teams went to the fourth quarter with ACU leading 58-56 and then Southeastern got the game tied for the ninth time in the game when Jaclyn Schovlin hit a layup with 6:59 to play to knot the game at 66 apiece. ACU, though, turned the game in its favor for good by going on a 13-2 run over the next 4:58 to take a 79-68 lead with 2:01 to play.
Golightly scored nine of her 18 points in the run that gave ACU its biggest lead of the game. She capped the run by hitting a layup to put the Wildcats up by double digits. Southeastern, however, wouldn’t go away as the Lions cut the ACU lead to 82-78 with 36 seconds left on a pair of free throws by Schovlin.
But freshman point guard Kayla Galindo hit a pair of free throws with 27 seconds to play to put ACU up 84-78 before junior guard Breanna Wright — who, along with Sara Williamson, scored a team-high 20 points — hit a pair of free throws with six seconds left to make it an 86-78 game and seal the win for the Wildcats.
Allen had 13 points and 16 rebounds to record her second career double and establish a new career-high in rebounds, breaking her old mark of 14 against Howard Payne on Nov. 15, 2016. Golightly’s double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds was the fourth of her career, all of them occurring this season.
The Wildcats continue their three-game homestead Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they host Houston Baptist before closing the home stretch next Saturday with a 2 p.m. home contest vs. Northwestern State.
