PORTALES, N.M. – Freshman guard Mack Lankford scored a team-high 25 points as ACU knocked off Eastern New Mexico, 67-64, Saturday afternoon in Lone Star Conference South Division women's basketball action.
The win pushes the Wildcats ever closer to their fifth straight berth in the LSC Post-Season Tournament. The Wildcats (11-13 overall) are in a three-way tie for second in the LSC South Division at 8-4 and need only a Midwestern State home loss Monday against division-leading Tarleton State (11-0 in the LSC South) to clinch the post-season berth.
Saturday night's game was tight throughout, especially in the second half, which saw two ties and three lead changes. ACU took the lead for good on a free throw by
Autumn Whitaker at the 6:22 mark and a 3-pointer by Lankford with 5:%6 to play to give the Wildcats a 56-52 lead.
Whitaker hit another free throw with 5:22 left to push the lead to 57-52 before she hit a fastbreak layup with 3:58 to play to give the Wildcats a 59-52 lead.
The Zias were able to trim the lead to two points on two occasions in the final 3:02, but couldn never get the game-tying bucket to fall. Lankford hit a key 3-pointer at the 1:47 mark to make it 52-57 and nailed two free throws with 48 seconds left to make it 64-60.
Cecilee Perez hit 3 of 4 from the line in the final 30 seconds to seal the win for the Wildcats.
Lankford hit just 8 of 22 shots from the field, but she was 6 of 14 from 3-point range to give her 25 points. Whitaker finished with 12 points and seven assists, while Perez had 14 points in 25 minutes off the bench.
