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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - With junior forward Lizzy Dimba out of action for the first time in her career, the Abilene Christian women's basketball team won a hard-fought 71-65 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday night at the Dugan Wellness Center.
The win lifted ACU's overall and conference records to 21-3 and 12-1, keeping them atop the Southland Conference standings, while the Islanders fell to 8-15 and 5-9.
ACU head coach Julie Goodenough disclosed that Dimba suffered a season-ending injury during tonight's postgame radio interview, saying it happened Sunday during a non-contact rebounding drill in practice. Dimba will miss the remainder of the Wildcats' historic season, but is expected to be back in time to start her senior year.
Dimba played all 30 games as a freshman in 2013-14 and started 28 of 29 games last season. Her last missed start prior to tonight was the Jan. 17, 2015 game at Stephen F. Austin.
With Dimba on the bench in her warmups, the Wildcats relied heavily on their four everyday starters and senior guard Paris Webb, who logged 32 minutes.
Junior post Sydney Shelstead played a complete game and registered a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double, and Suzzy Dimba led all scorers with 25 points on 9-17 shooting.
Guard Alexis Mason hit three 3-pointers to finish with 19 points in addition to four assists and four steals, while hometown senior Whitney West Swinford, a native of nearby Portland, Texas, finished with 11 points in 35 points.
ACU led the game from start-to-finish and led by as many as 16 points with 4:18 left in the third quarter, but the Islanders' Brittany Mbamalu single-handedly brought the home team back into the contest with four treys late in the second half, one of which made it a three-point game with 5:33 left in the game.
From there ACU pushed its lead back out to 10 points, starting with a Shelstead layup and then a steal by Mason led to a fast-break bucket for the McKinney, Texas product. A second steal by Mason led to another basket for Shelstead and Suzzy Dimba hit one of her two free throws to put the Wildcats ahead 68-58.
Mbamalu hit one more trey with 1:38 to go, but after that the Islanders' fouled twice more leading to three points from the ACU charity stripe. Two free throws by Mason with :24 seconds left iced the game as it gave the Wildcats' a 71-61 lead.
Kassie Jones took the ball coast-to-coast on the Islanders' second-to-last possession, and then they forced a turnover under the basket leading to a Camesha Davis tip-in at the buzzer.
Mbamalu led all Islanders with 14 points on a night when they shot only 38.7 percent from the floor and 30.4 percent from 3-point range.
By comparison, ACU shot 49.0 percent from the floor and hit 52.6 percent of its 3-pointers (10-19). The Wildcats also won the rebounding battle, 37-30, with 23 defensive boards.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday at home vs. Southeastern Louisiana at 3:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN3. ACU defeated the Lady Lions on the road earlier this month, 88-72.
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The win lifted ACU's overall and conference records to 21-3 and 12-1, keeping them atop the Southland Conference standings, while the Islanders fell to 8-15 and 5-9.
ACU head coach Julie Goodenough disclosed that Dimba suffered a season-ending injury during tonight's postgame radio interview, saying it happened Sunday during a non-contact rebounding drill in practice. Dimba will miss the remainder of the Wildcats' historic season, but is expected to be back in time to start her senior year.
Dimba played all 30 games as a freshman in 2013-14 and started 28 of 29 games last season. Her last missed start prior to tonight was the Jan. 17, 2015 game at Stephen F. Austin.
With Dimba on the bench in her warmups, the Wildcats relied heavily on their four everyday starters and senior guard Paris Webb, who logged 32 minutes.
Junior post Sydney Shelstead played a complete game and registered a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double, and Suzzy Dimba led all scorers with 25 points on 9-17 shooting.
Guard Alexis Mason hit three 3-pointers to finish with 19 points in addition to four assists and four steals, while hometown senior Whitney West Swinford, a native of nearby Portland, Texas, finished with 11 points in 35 points.
ACU led the game from start-to-finish and led by as many as 16 points with 4:18 left in the third quarter, but the Islanders' Brittany Mbamalu single-handedly brought the home team back into the contest with four treys late in the second half, one of which made it a three-point game with 5:33 left in the game.
From there ACU pushed its lead back out to 10 points, starting with a Shelstead layup and then a steal by Mason led to a fast-break bucket for the McKinney, Texas product. A second steal by Mason led to another basket for Shelstead and Suzzy Dimba hit one of her two free throws to put the Wildcats ahead 68-58.
Mbamalu hit one more trey with 1:38 to go, but after that the Islanders' fouled twice more leading to three points from the ACU charity stripe. Two free throws by Mason with :24 seconds left iced the game as it gave the Wildcats' a 71-61 lead.
Kassie Jones took the ball coast-to-coast on the Islanders' second-to-last possession, and then they forced a turnover under the basket leading to a Camesha Davis tip-in at the buzzer.
Mbamalu led all Islanders with 14 points on a night when they shot only 38.7 percent from the floor and 30.4 percent from 3-point range.
By comparison, ACU shot 49.0 percent from the floor and hit 52.6 percent of its 3-pointers (10-19). The Wildcats also won the rebounding battle, 37-30, with 23 defensive boards.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday at home vs. Southeastern Louisiana at 3:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN3. ACU defeated the Lady Lions on the road earlier this month, 88-72.
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