Wildcats KO No. 9 Lady Buffs
1/16/2010 5:54:48 PM | Men's Basketball
ABILENE -- For years, West Texas A&M has made its mark with stout, in-your-face defense and game-changing scoring runs.
Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum, the ACU Wildcats matched the No. 9 Lady Buffs in each category as the Wildcats took a 69-67 win over West Texas A&M in a Lone Star Conference South Division women's basketball game.
West Texas A&M point guard Holly Isaacs had a clean look at a potential game-winning 3-pointer, but her shot bounced off the side iron into the hands of ACU's Courtney Laing as the buzzer sounded.
ACU's fifth straight win pushes its record to 12-5 overall and 2-0 in the LSC South Division, while the Lady Buffs fall to 17-2 and 1-1. ACU has now won three straight home games over West Texas A&M and is 3-3 against the Lady Buffs since the 2007-08 season.
The Wildcats now get a week off before their next game, which will be next Saturday at 6 p.m. in San Angelo against rival Angelo State. It's a break the Wildcats sorely need after playing their sixth game in the last 17 days in four states. ACU went 5-1 in those six games.
"Playing West Texas A&M is always a physical battle, and it was again (Saturday)," ACU head coach Shawna Lavender said. "We desperately need a week off after the last three weeks. But the thing that I like about our team is that I've seen a lot of mental toughness, and that's something we've probably lacked the last couple of years."
Despite West Texas A&M playing without three players because of a violation of team rules, both teams were at their best, matching each other on both ends of the floor in a taught, back-and-forth battle. The game featured 11 ties and 16 lead changes, including six lead changes in the final 4:46 of the game.
With West Texas A&M leading by one (60-59), ACU's Jody Meyer hit a layup on a feed from Laing to give the Wildcats a 61-60 lead with 4:46 to play. But Joni Unruh answered with a layup on an assist from Brittany Williams to give the Lady Buffs a 62-61 lead with 4:22 left in the contest.
But ACU freshman guard Cecilee Perez answered with the biggest bucket of her career, a 3-pointer from the left wing to give the Wildcats a 64-62 lead with 3:41 to play. But Jamie Simmons -- who was sensational with a game-high 27 points on 11 of 21 shooting -- answered with a 3-pointer of her own to put the Lady Buffs back on top 65-64 with 3:18 left in the game.
Jody Meyer, though, answered just 15 seconds later as she hit a layup on a pass from Kat Kundmueller to put the Wildcats back on top 66-65 with 3:03 left. Simmons scored again with 1:55 to play to put the Lady Buffs back on top 67-66, but Kundmueller answered with a floating jumper along the right baseline to give the Wildcats a 68-67 advantage with 1:45 to play.
West Texas A&M then went ice-cold from the field, missing five straight shots from 1:27 to 19 seconds left in the game, including a layup attemtp by Ceciley Johnson that would given the Lady Buffs the lead with 19 seconds left to play.
Jamie Meyer went to the line with 10 seconds to play and hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it a 69-67 game. WT then went for the win, but the 3-point attempt by Isaacs came up short and the Wildcats picked up the victory.
"The thing we wanted to do going into the game was to limit their big runs," Lavender said. "They had a couple of runs where it looked like they might be gaining some momentum, but each time we'd get a steal or score and stop the run.
"You know going in against West Texas that their defense is going to be right up in your face, and I thought we handled that pretty well (Saturday)," she said. "We did a great job attacking the basket with Kelsey (Darby-Holson) and Kat and that kind of kept their defense in check."
Darby-Holson played one of the best games of her career, finishing with 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and one steal in 28 minutes. Kundmueller finished with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Jamie Meyer had 10 points. Jody Meyer had her 11th double-double of the season with 19 points and 13 rebounds to go along with two assists and two blocks. Laing had five points and three rebounds, but she added three assists, three blocks and two steals for ACU.
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