Abilene Christian pulls off wild comeback to beat New Mexico State in women's basketball
Down 19 points with 5:07 left in the third quarter, Abilene Christian appeared headed towards its third consecutive loss. The Wildcats, though, didn’t give up and pulled off an unbelievable comeback.
ACU outscored New Mexico State 10-2 in the final 2:30 to beat the Aggies 76-73 in a Western Athletic Conference women’s basketball game Saturday at the Teague Center.
“We’ve seen our team do this time and time again, (though) not down 19,” ACU coach Julie Goodenough said. “But we get down, and they don’t worry about it. They just keep fighting, keep playing hard.”
Bella Earle scored six of her team-high 16 points in the final 1:59, including the go-ahead basket with 1:15 left, to cap the dizzying final quarter.
“It was a huge win for us,” said Earle, a 5-foot-10 freshman from Denton Guyer. “We really needed to bounce back from our last two games. I think we used our last game as motivation to come out here and get a good win.”
ACU outscored the Aggies 22-8 in the final quarter, including 16-4 in the final 5:37, and 28-8 in the last 10:39.
Goodenough credited her team’s defensive play for finally shutting down an Aggies team that had been attacking the basket and pretty much scoring at will most of the game. She praised Madi Miller and Emma Middleton’s defensive play down the stretch.
“Madi went in the last five minutes of the game and did not give up a single drive,” Goodenough said. “She kept stopping drives on the baseline. … (Middleton) fought so hard to keep their center from having any touches, and we continued running plays where we could execute and either get a layup or a backdoor cut, and our players hit shots.”
Sarah Griswold followed Earle with 13 points, and Miller added 12 for ACU (12-5 overall, 4-2 WAC), which was coming off losses to Stephen F. Austin (81-65) and Grand Canyon (74-69) – the latter Thurday in Abilene.
Bigue Sarr led NMSU (5-8 1-2) with 21 points and 12 rebounds – both game highs. Tayelin Grays also had 10 points.
It’s the Aggies' second straight loss. Tarleton State beat them 58-56 on Thursday in Stephenville.
“Just a tale of two different halves,” Aggies coach Brooke Atkinson said. “When they started to go on their run, our big defensive scheme was to guard the 3-point line. I thought we did a really good job with that.
“But when they continue to get and-ones, that’s the same as basically a 3. I thought we had a couple of defensive breakdowns and then just playing not to lose. … I thought we got a little tight late.”
It was and-ones by Earle that turned the tide in the closing seconds of the third quarter. She converted two in the final 39 seconds – the last after a NMSU turnover – to quickly whittle a 17-point deficit to 11 going into the final quarter.
“(Earle’s) quickness and her willingness to dive into a bunch of traffic, knowing there’s probably going to be some pretty hard contact, really helped to jump start the fourth quarter,” Goodenough said.
The Aggies had a five-point lead with 2:48 to go, before Taylor Morgan hit two frees to make it a three-point game (71-68). Jamie Bonnarens came up with a steal, and Earle came up with a layup on the fast break to pull the Wildcats within one (71-70). Earle scored the go-ahead basket with 45 seconds later off a steal by Middleton.
After the Aggies missed two shots on the same possession, Earle got a rebound, was fouled and hit two free throws on the other end.
Grays hit two free throws to get the Aggies within one (74-73) with 17 seconds remaining. The Aggies had a chance for the lead after ACU turned the ball over on an inbounds pass, but Taylor Donaldson came up empty on a layup with six seconds left. Kamryn Mraz, who got the rebound, hit two free throws at the other end for a three-point lead. Molly Kaiser missed a 3 at the buzzer.
ACU won the game despite hitting only 1 of 8 3-point attempts, but the Wildcats hit 26 of 40 shots inside the 3-point line, while converting 21 of 28 free throws.
“The pressure out on the perimeter eliminated some wide open looks for us, but it makes you kind of vulnerable to getting beat off dribble drives and getting beat off backdoors,” Goodenough said. “We were able to feed our post player (Griswold) just about any possession because they were pressuring out on the perimeter so much.”
NMSU, which was 6 of 8 from the free-throw line, hit 32 of 59 shots from the field – 3 of 10 from 3-point range.
Both teams scored 46 points in the paint, but ACU had a 23-12 advantage off turnovers, forcing 18 and committing 14, while also outscoring the Aggies 21-10 off fast breaks.
It was a big win for an ACU team that goes on road for its longest trip of the season. The Wildcats play at Seattle (5-8, 0-2) on Thursday, before going to California Baptist (12-2, 3-0) on Saturday.
Dixie State dealt Seattle its second straight loss Saturday in St. George, Utah, 75-69.
Cal Baptist, which plays Seattle on Monday, beat Utah Valley 83-68 in Orem, Utah, on Saturday. The Lancers, ranked No. 4 in the CollegeInsider.Com Mid Major Top 25, have won seven consecutive games. The defending WAC champs have won 20 consecutive regular-season league game.
Joey D. Richards covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him at Twitter at ARN_Joey. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
ACU 76, New Mexico State 73
NMSU … 16 … 23 … 26 … 8 – 73
ACU … 16 … 13 … 25 … 22 – 76
NEW MEXICO STATE (5-8, 1-2) – Bigue Sarr 10-13 1-3 21, Melanie Isbell 0-1, 3-3 3, Jade Bradley 2-7 0-0 5, Soufia Inoussa 4-12 0-0 9, Tayelin Grays 4-5 2-2 10, Adrianna Henderson 0-3 0-0 0, Deja Terrell 4-5 0-0 8, Molly Kaiser 2-4 0-0 4, Taylor Donaldson 4-6 0-0 9, Fama Thiam 1-1 0-0 2, Moe Shida 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 32-59 6-8 73.
ABILENE CHRISTIAN (12-5, 4-2) – Jamie Bonnarens 3-6 0-0 6, Sarah Griswold 6-12 1-2 13, Kamryn Mraz 2-4 2-2 6, Tatum Barber 2-4 2-6 6, Madi Miller 3-4 5-6 12, Bella Earle 6-10 4-4 16, Emma Middleton 4-5 0-0 8, Taylor Morgan 1-3 7-8 9, Katie Horyna 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-48 21-28 76.
3-Point Goals – NMSU 3-10 (Isbell 0-1, Bradley 1-1, Inoussa 1-5, Kaiser 0-1, Donaldson 1-2), ACU 1-8 (Griswold 0-1, Mraz 0-1, Miller 1-2, Earle 0-2, Morgan 0-2). Rebounds – NMSU 30 (Sarr 12), ACU 22 (Barber 8). Assists – NMSU 17 (Bradley, Henderson 4), ACU 15 (Bonnarens, Earle 4). Total Fouls – NMSU 26, ACU 26. Fouled Out – NMSU: Isbell; ACU: None. Technical Fouls – None.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene Christian rally sinks New Mexico State women in WAC basketball
