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ABILENE – Sophomore guard Breanna Wright scored a single-game career high 30 points in leading Abilene Christian women's basketball to an 88-67 win over their old Lone Star Conference rivals from Midwestern State Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum.
The win gave ACU a 2-0 homestand that bookended finals week and lifted its season record to 5-3. The Wildcats also improved to 38-22 in their all-time series vs. the Mustangs, who had not visited the Key City since the 2012-13 season.
Wright's 30-point performance was the seventh for ACU since the start of its D1 era. She also is the first Wildcat to score 30 in a single game since Alexis Mason netted 30 vs. Houston Baptist on March 4 of last season.
Suzzy Dimba's 33-point game vs. Central Arkansas from last season remains the highest single-game scoring effort within ACU's D1 era.
ACU started the game down 5-0 but soon found its groove on offense, taking over the game on a 15-1 run that forced the Mustangs into an early timeout at the 5:44 mark. The Wildcats went ahead 7-6 on consecutive layups by Sierra Allen (4 points) and Wright, and soon grabbed a double-digit lead on back-to-back treys from Wright and Dominique Golightly (13 points, 9 rebounds).
The sophomore duo again connected from beyond the arc outside the two-minute mark followed by a fast-break layup from Sara Williamson (6 points, 4 assists) that pushed the home team's lead to 23-9 with 1:34 remaining. And on ACU's last possession of the quarter, Wright earned the 'and one' to put her team comfortably ahead 26-12.
Wright tied her single-game career high in scoring with 15 points on a wide-open fast-break layup to begin the second quarter, and surpassed it with 5:31 left in the half on her third trey of the game.
Wright scored 15 points in the season opener vs. Southwest on 6-12 shooting and started today's game 6-7 from the floor. She finished 11-of-21 from the field and 7-of-14 from 3-point range.
Defensively, ACU did a fine job of stopping the Mustangs in transition (3-10 FG) but nine fouls led to 12 free-throw trips for the visitors, which allowed them to keep pace with the Wildcats for much of the second quarter. That was until ACU received two treys in 20 seconds from rookies Kayla Galindo and Josie Larson followed by an offensive board and put-back from Makayla Mabry, which gave the Wildcats an 18-point lead at 43-25.
ACU then went up by 20 (46-26) on Wright's fourth 3-pointer with 50 seconds to go, while her fifth trey of the half came on the Wildcats' final possession off the assist from Galindo.
The Wildcats shot 55.9 percent (19-34) in the first half and made close to half (10-21) of their 3-point tries, while holding the Mustangs to 36.8 percent shooting (7-19). Twenty-six of ACU's first-half points came off 14 MSU turnovers. The Wildcats also beat the Mustangs in the paint, where they outscored them 18-6 in the first half and 30-22 for the game.
Midwestern State would go on to win the third quarter, 21-15, thanks to three triples and 8-10 free throw-shooting to make it a 64-49 ball game, but in the final stanza, the Wildcats' staved off any further dramatics with well-timed 3-point buckets from Golightly, Williamson and Wright.
Galindo then sank a driving layup with 1:53 remaining to put the Wildcats' lead back over the 20-point margin.
The Wildcats return to action Thursday for the start of a two-day, two-game trip to Las Vegas where ACU will battle both Radford and Old Dominion. Game times are 2 and 4:15 p.m. CT.
Both games will air on Abilene's 98.1 FM – The Ticket with Seth Wilson handling the play-by-play.
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The win gave ACU a 2-0 homestand that bookended finals week and lifted its season record to 5-3. The Wildcats also improved to 38-22 in their all-time series vs. the Mustangs, who had not visited the Key City since the 2012-13 season.
Wright's 30-point performance was the seventh for ACU since the start of its D1 era. She also is the first Wildcat to score 30 in a single game since Alexis Mason netted 30 vs. Houston Baptist on March 4 of last season.
Suzzy Dimba's 33-point game vs. Central Arkansas from last season remains the highest single-game scoring effort within ACU's D1 era.
ACU started the game down 5-0 but soon found its groove on offense, taking over the game on a 15-1 run that forced the Mustangs into an early timeout at the 5:44 mark. The Wildcats went ahead 7-6 on consecutive layups by Sierra Allen (4 points) and Wright, and soon grabbed a double-digit lead on back-to-back treys from Wright and Dominique Golightly (13 points, 9 rebounds).
The sophomore duo again connected from beyond the arc outside the two-minute mark followed by a fast-break layup from Sara Williamson (6 points, 4 assists) that pushed the home team's lead to 23-9 with 1:34 remaining. And on ACU's last possession of the quarter, Wright earned the 'and one' to put her team comfortably ahead 26-12.
Wright tied her single-game career high in scoring with 15 points on a wide-open fast-break layup to begin the second quarter, and surpassed it with 5:31 left in the half on her third trey of the game.
Wright scored 15 points in the season opener vs. Southwest on 6-12 shooting and started today's game 6-7 from the floor. She finished 11-of-21 from the field and 7-of-14 from 3-point range.
Defensively, ACU did a fine job of stopping the Mustangs in transition (3-10 FG) but nine fouls led to 12 free-throw trips for the visitors, which allowed them to keep pace with the Wildcats for much of the second quarter. That was until ACU received two treys in 20 seconds from rookies Kayla Galindo and Josie Larson followed by an offensive board and put-back from Makayla Mabry, which gave the Wildcats an 18-point lead at 43-25.
ACU then went up by 20 (46-26) on Wright's fourth 3-pointer with 50 seconds to go, while her fifth trey of the half came on the Wildcats' final possession off the assist from Galindo.
The Wildcats shot 55.9 percent (19-34) in the first half and made close to half (10-21) of their 3-point tries, while holding the Mustangs to 36.8 percent shooting (7-19). Twenty-six of ACU's first-half points came off 14 MSU turnovers. The Wildcats also beat the Mustangs in the paint, where they outscored them 18-6 in the first half and 30-22 for the game.
Midwestern State would go on to win the third quarter, 21-15, thanks to three triples and 8-10 free throw-shooting to make it a 64-49 ball game, but in the final stanza, the Wildcats' staved off any further dramatics with well-timed 3-point buckets from Golightly, Williamson and Wright.
Galindo then sank a driving layup with 1:53 remaining to put the Wildcats' lead back over the 20-point margin.
The Wildcats return to action Thursday for the start of a two-day, two-game trip to Las Vegas where ACU will battle both Radford and Old Dominion. Game times are 2 and 4:15 p.m. CT.
Both games will air on Abilene's 98.1 FM – The Ticket with Seth Wilson handling the play-by-play.
More...