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Courtesy of Lance Fleming, ACU Asst. Athletic Director
BEAUMONT - What a difference five days makes in the Southland Conference.
Last Saturday in a 28-point win over Lamar, the ACU Wildcats seemingly couldn't miss as they rang up 90 points and hit 15 3-pointers in a win at Moody Coliseum. But Thursday night at the Montagne Center, the Wildcats never found any offensive rhythm and couldn't get enough shots to fall as they saw their 14-game winning streak snapped in a 63-54 loss to the Lamar Cardinals.
The loss drops ACU to 18-3 overall and 9-1 in the league, still one-half game ahead of Central Arkansas in the women's standings. Lamar, meanwhile, improves to 9-13 and 5-6. ACU will be back in action Saturday at 1 p.m. in Hammond, La., when it takes on Southeastern Louisiana (3-17 and 2-7).
Wildcat junior guard Alexis Mason continued her stellar play with a career-high 30 points, but it wasn't enough as the Wildcats lost for the first time since Dec. 2 at Texas Tech and its first Southland Conference game following a remarkable 9-0 start. With two free throws in the closing seconds, Mason became first Wildcat to score 30 points since Renata Marquez did so late in her senior season of 2012-13.
ACU head coach Julie Goodenough and her team knew to expect a better game tonight from the league's preseason favorites than the one that lost 90-62 in Abilene on Saturday, but no one could have predicted the Wildcats would be hurt by a season-worst 25 turnovers and poor shooting (16 of 61, 26.2 percent) over the final three quarters.
ACU made only eight field goals following Mason's first quarter buzzer-beater that tied the score at 22-22, and recorded none during a 12-minute stretch between the third and fourth quarters.
Mason and the Wildcats got the offense rolling a little and climbed to within six points of the lead (59-53) in the final seconds, but Mason and Suzzy Dimba both missed their attempts near the 45-second mark and then Baileigh O'Dell iced the victory with a pair of free throws with 35 seconds to go.
Lamar led from start to finish despite shooting .300 (21-70) with Collins and O'Dell (17 points) leading the way. Collins had only two points and O'Dell was held scoreless in their first game vs. ACU on 0-8 shooting. But Thursday night, O'Dell hit 6 of 16 shots with a pair of treys, and Collins was 7 of 18.
Sydney Shelstead scored 11 points for ACU, thanks to 7 of 8 shooting from the foul line, and junior posts Suzzy and Lizzy Dimba pulled down 11 and 14 rebounds, respectively.
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