PORTALES, N.M. --
Jamie Meyer led all scorers with 25 points Wednesday night as the ACU Wildcats opened Lone Star Conference South Division women's play with a 71-55 win over Eastern New Mexico at Greyhound Arena.
The win was the fourth straight for the Wildcats, who have now won nine of their last 11 to improve to 11-5 overall and 1-0 in the LSC South and 8-0 on the road. Eastern New Mexico, meanwhile, is now 5-11 and 0-1 after losing for the 13th straight time in LSC South Division play.
ACU will return to the floor Saturday at 2 p.m. when it hosts longtime LSC South Division rival West Texas A&M at Moody Coliseum. The Lady Buffs are 17-1 and ranked No. 9 in the nation after an 89-72 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Wednesday. The Wildcats, however, have beaten WTAM in each of their last two meetings at Moody Coliseum.
ACU's win Wednesday over Eastern New Mexico was a continuation of the Wildcats' decade-long domination of the Zias. ACU has now won 17 straight games over Eastern New Mexico with its last loss against the Zias coming almost nine years ago, a 59-53 road loss on Feb. 17, 2001. The Wildcats are 14-0 against the Zias under head coach Shawna Lavender with those 14 wins coming by an average of 14 points.
After trailing by eight points early (12-4) the Wildcats were never really tested once they finally gained the lead for good at 27-25 on a layup by
Jamie Meyer. The Wildcats' senior forward from Round Rock started 0 for 5 from the field, but the nation's fourth-leading scorer finished the first half by hitting 5 of her last 6 shots and going to the break with 10 points.
The Wildcats stayed in it early thanks to the inspired play of senior forward
Courtney Laing, who came off the bench to score eight points in 11 minutes. The Wildcats settled for a five-point halftime lead (33-28) after shooting 44.4 percent from the floor (16 of 36) in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
ACU, though, pulled away early in the second half as Meyer scored nine of the Wildcats' first 11 points of the half, pushing the Wildcats' lead to 44-32 with 17:11 to play. After the Zias were able to cut the lead to nine points (48-39) on a Nikki Ingram layup with 13:22 to play, the Wildcats essentially put the game away with a 10-2 run that pushed their lead to 58-41 with 10:04 to play.
Jamie Meyer and
Courtney Laing each had four points in the run with
Jody Meyer contributing the other two points. The Zias never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Jody Meyer -- eighth in the nation in rebounding -- finished with 15 points and four rebounds, while point guard
Kat Kundmueller -- the nation's leader in assists at 7.7 per game -- finished with nine assists to along with four points.
Autumn Whitaker filled up the stat sheet with five points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals in 33 minutes.
