ABILENE -- In a game they absolutely had to have in their drive to next month's Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament, the ACU Wildcats put together one of their best second halves of the season in a 77-59 win over rival Angelo State at Moody Coliseum.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 15-8 overall and 5-3 in the LSC South Division, while the Rambelles fall to 11-11 and 4-4. ACU is now tied with Texas A&M-Kingsville for third place in the LSC South, both with 5-3 records.
ACU, which has now won 18 straight LSC South Division home games dating back to February 2007, will be at "home" Tuesday night when it hosts Tarleton State in a key game at 5:30 p.m. Becuase of Sing Song setup in Moody Coliseum, the game will be played at McMurry's Kimbrell Arena.
Angelo led only once (14-12 early in the first half), but opened the second half with a 9-2 run to trim a 35-26 halftime deficit to 37-35 with 16:16 to play.
But as they did three times in the second half, the Wildcats would put together a quick run to separate themselves from the Rambelles. Senior point guard
Kat Kundmueller hit maybe her biggest shot of the season with 15:22 to play when she buried a 3-pointer to push ACU's lead back to 40-35.
That 3-pointer -- ACU's only one of the game -- sparked a 7-0 run by the Wildcats to push the lead back to 44-35 with 14:26 to play in the game. After the 3-pointer,
Jamie Meyer hit a layup and then after a block by sister
Jody Meyer,
Autumn Whitaker took a pass from Kundmueller to hit a fast-break layup and make it a nine-point lead for the Wildcats.
But the Rambelles -- also playing to keep their season going into March -- answered again, outscoring ACU 11-4 over the next three minutes to cut the Wildcats' lead to 48-46 with 10:32 to play. Paige Weishuhn had five points in the run that got Angelo to within two points for the second time in the half.
The Wildcats, however, finally put the Rambelles away with a 14-5 run that pushed their lead to double digits (62-51) for the first time on the day with 5:32 to play. Jamie and
Jody Meyer and
Kelsey Darby-Holson each had four points in the run, while
Courtney Laing added a bucket for the Wildcats.
ACU's lead would not dip below 11 points the rest of the way as the Wildcats stayed very much alive in the race for the post-season tournament.
The Rambelles couldn't do much right the last 10 minutes of the second half as they only hit 7 of their last 22 shots from the field. The Wildcats also out-rebounded the Rambelles, 46-26, and ASU hit just 5 of 25 3-point shots.
Jamie Meyer led the Wildcats with 23 points, while
Jody Meyer recorded her 14th double-double of the season wth 17 points and 13 reobunds.
Autumn Whitaker scored 11 points off the bench, while Darby-Holson added 11. Kundmueller finished with seven points, six rebounds and eight assists.
