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Contributed by Lance Fleming, ACU Associate Director of Athletics for Media Relations
ABILENE - A conference championship nine months in the making was capped Saturday afternoon with a decisive win in front of a boisterous Moody Coliseum crowd.
The ACU women jumped out to a 9-0 lead over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and never trailed as the Wildcats captured the outright Southland Conference regular season championship with a 63-52 win over the Islanders that earned them the league's automatic bid to the Women's NIT.
Not too bad for a team picked last fall to finish ninth in the conference's pre-season poll, despite returning all five starters from a team that won 17 games overall and nine league games.
"We've been working toward this championship since the first week of June (2015) when we started summer practice," said ACU head coach Julie Goodenough, who has led the ACU program to its final Lone Star Conference title (2013) and first Southland Conference title (2016). "This team has embraced our slogan of 'Team First Wins,' and they've totally bought into everything we've done to get to this point. I couldn't be more proud of this team and they've worked every day to get this championship."
Much like the conference season, the Wildcats led from wire-to-wire Saturday afternoon, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and never trailing in the 40-minute contest. ACU led 38-24 at halftime, and even though the Islanders cut the ACU lead to 48-40 at the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats had enough in the tank to get the win.
They also had junior center Sydney Shelstead, who dominated the fourth quarter on the offensive end, scoring 10 of her 19 points in the final 10 minutes as she hit all five of her shots from the field. She also pulled down three rebounds, blocked one shot and had one steal, all while surpassing 1,000 career points in the game.
ACU's defense also came back into play in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats limited the Islanders to 4 of 11 shooting from the field, including 0 of 4 from 3-point range and just 12 points. The Wildcats also forced six turnovers and scored nine of their 15 points in the quarter off those turnovers. ACU also dominated in the paint in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Islanders 12-2 inside.
Junior guard Alexis Mason had a big afternoon with a game-high 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting from the field, including 4 off 11 from 3-point range. Suzzy Dimba finished with 10 points (6 of 8 from the free throw line) and a team-high nine rebounds. Senior guards Whitney Swinford and Paris Webb - playing in their final regular-season games at Moody Coliseum - finished with six and three points, respectively.
Swinford - the Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year in 2012-13 - is the only player in ACU athletics history to win a Lone Star Conference and Southland Conference championship in a career. Swinford hit two 3-pointers to give her 231 career 3-pointers, leaving her eight behind all-time leader Ashley King (2002-06).
"This is amazing," Swinford said. "Winning the conference championship my freshman year was great, but moving up to Division I and winning the conference title my senior year is an awesome feeling."
In only its third season at the NCAA Division I level, the Wildcats finish the regular season at 26-3 and 17-1 in the league with their only losses coming at Kansas State, at Texas Tech and at Lamar. They finished 14-0 at home during the regular season, and their 26 wins are tied for the fourth-most in a season in program history behind the 31 wins by the 1980-81 and 1995-96 teams and the 27 posted by the 1987-88 team.
The Wildcats' 26-3 record works out to an .897 winning percentage, second in program history to the .939 winning percentage the 1995-96 team posted en route to a 31-2 record and third place finish at the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
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ABILENE - A conference championship nine months in the making was capped Saturday afternoon with a decisive win in front of a boisterous Moody Coliseum crowd.
The ACU women jumped out to a 9-0 lead over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and never trailed as the Wildcats captured the outright Southland Conference regular season championship with a 63-52 win over the Islanders that earned them the league's automatic bid to the Women's NIT.
Not too bad for a team picked last fall to finish ninth in the conference's pre-season poll, despite returning all five starters from a team that won 17 games overall and nine league games.
"We've been working toward this championship since the first week of June (2015) when we started summer practice," said ACU head coach Julie Goodenough, who has led the ACU program to its final Lone Star Conference title (2013) and first Southland Conference title (2016). "This team has embraced our slogan of 'Team First Wins,' and they've totally bought into everything we've done to get to this point. I couldn't be more proud of this team and they've worked every day to get this championship."
Much like the conference season, the Wildcats led from wire-to-wire Saturday afternoon, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and never trailing in the 40-minute contest. ACU led 38-24 at halftime, and even though the Islanders cut the ACU lead to 48-40 at the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats had enough in the tank to get the win.
They also had junior center Sydney Shelstead, who dominated the fourth quarter on the offensive end, scoring 10 of her 19 points in the final 10 minutes as she hit all five of her shots from the field. She also pulled down three rebounds, blocked one shot and had one steal, all while surpassing 1,000 career points in the game.
ACU's defense also came back into play in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats limited the Islanders to 4 of 11 shooting from the field, including 0 of 4 from 3-point range and just 12 points. The Wildcats also forced six turnovers and scored nine of their 15 points in the quarter off those turnovers. ACU also dominated in the paint in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Islanders 12-2 inside.
Junior guard Alexis Mason had a big afternoon with a game-high 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting from the field, including 4 off 11 from 3-point range. Suzzy Dimba finished with 10 points (6 of 8 from the free throw line) and a team-high nine rebounds. Senior guards Whitney Swinford and Paris Webb - playing in their final regular-season games at Moody Coliseum - finished with six and three points, respectively.
Swinford - the Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year in 2012-13 - is the only player in ACU athletics history to win a Lone Star Conference and Southland Conference championship in a career. Swinford hit two 3-pointers to give her 231 career 3-pointers, leaving her eight behind all-time leader Ashley King (2002-06).
"This is amazing," Swinford said. "Winning the conference championship my freshman year was great, but moving up to Division I and winning the conference title my senior year is an awesome feeling."
In only its third season at the NCAA Division I level, the Wildcats finish the regular season at 26-3 and 17-1 in the league with their only losses coming at Kansas State, at Texas Tech and at Lamar. They finished 14-0 at home during the regular season, and their 26 wins are tied for the fourth-most in a season in program history behind the 31 wins by the 1980-81 and 1995-96 teams and the 27 posted by the 1987-88 team.
The Wildcats' 26-3 record works out to an .897 winning percentage, second in program history to the .939 winning percentage the 1995-96 team posted en route to a 31-2 record and third place finish at the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
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